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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the environmental 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 utilized to make biodiesel it emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

Without any screening of what's can be found in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the toughest difficulties for federal governments all over the world.

They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as a crucial means of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 suggests they cancel out the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has been commonly rejected because it encourages deforestation.

So for the last decade approximately, making use of used cooking oil has expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a key component of biodiesel with an efficient industry springing up across Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there simply isn't sufficient 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 problematic when it comes to effects on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people 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 nations aren't readily available however the circulation of UCO is likely to be similar.

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

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

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

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are just watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is performed, some professionals believe fraud is swarming.

The suggestion of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification plans in location.

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

He says a brand-new database being established by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The mix of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability concerns arise in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming suspected fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and air travel aiming to decarbonise by using biofuels, demand for UCO could double over the next years.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of utilizing 'fake' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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