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Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Ulysses Mendenhall edited this page 2025-01-14 03:13:18 +01:00

Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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

Chip fat and other oils are considered waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand across Europe that imports now account for over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there's no method to prove these imports are sustainable.

Without any screening of what's coming in, experts think it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may boost logging

Consumers posture 'growing threat' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be one of the hardest difficulties for governments all over the world.

They've encouraged the use of biofuels as an essential means of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 suggests they counteract the carbon emitted when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when extensively utilized as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly rejected due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last years or two, the use of used cooking oil has actually expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key element of biodiesel with an effective market springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there simply isn't enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely troublesome when it comes to effect on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized 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 available however the flow of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have less utilized cooking oil to use on the important things that they were formerly utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the most affordable oil offered.

"So indirectly, we're just encouraging more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is brought out, some experts believe fraud is rife.

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

"It is extensively understood that the European Commission has taken relevant steps to totally suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

"The combination of modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability issues emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming suspected scams.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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