Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological effect of rising imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the research study, external, there's no way to show these imports are sustainable.

Without any testing of what's being available in, experts believe it is also ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the hardest obstacles for governments all over the world.

They've motivated using biofuels as an essential means of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a blend of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or veggies.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once extensively used as components of biodiesel but this practice has been widely rejected due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last years or so, using used cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key element of biodiesel with an efficient industry up across Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there just isn't adequate chip fat to walk around.

According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO used in Europe is imported.

Their research study suggests this is extremely troublesome when it pertains to effect on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals in these countries are changing the UCO with, when it is exported.

In 2019, Malaysia exported 90 million litres of UCO to the UK and Ireland. Figures for their exports to other European countries aren't readily available but the flow of UCO is most likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of used oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have less utilized cooking oil to utilize on the important things that they were previously using it for,” said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil offered.

"So indirectly, we're just motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia.“

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The concern is that some deceitful traders are merely diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is performed, some specialists think scams is swarming.

The suggestion of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust certification schemes in place.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent actions to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He states a brand-new database being established by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The mix of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability concerns emerge in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain,” he told BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not be reliable in stemming suspected scams.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation aiming to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of utilizing ‘fake’ UCO, potentially resulting in indirect effects such as deforestation.“

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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