Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the environmental effect of increasing imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

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

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's being available in, professionals think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might improve logging

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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be among the toughest difficulties for governments all over the world.

They've encouraged using biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were once extensively used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been widely rejected since it encourages deforestation.

So for the last decade or so, making use of utilized cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

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

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

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

Their study recommends this is extremely bothersome when it concerns effect 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 nations 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 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 contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the least expensive oil available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are simply diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is performed, some specialists believe scams is rife.

The idea of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation plans in place.

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

He states a brand-new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

"The mix of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

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

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and dangers of using 'fake' UCO, possibly leading to indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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