Climate modification: 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 thought about waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

With no screening of what's being available in, experts think it is also ripe for fraud.

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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 a crucial methods of suppressing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon produced when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively used as elements of biodiesel however this practice has been widely challenged due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last decade approximately, the use of used cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial component of biodiesel with an efficient market springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the quantity of made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there just isn't adequate chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study suggests this is highly problematic when it comes to influence on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has 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 readily available however 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 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 collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The worry is that some unethical traders are just diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is brought out, some specialists believe fraud is swarming.

The idea 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 known that the European Commission has actually taken relevant steps to totally curb 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 ensure 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 ensure that no sustainability concerns occur in the entire 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, may not work in stemming thought scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next decade.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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