Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than fossil fuels'

The UK's "irrational" use of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank states.

A report by Chatham House, external says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food rates.

The author states that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the climate than nonrenewable fuel .

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transport fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research performed for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level means that UK drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more often as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report say that if the UK is to meet its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

"It is tough to find any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

"Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely costly way to minimize carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting results in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the rate for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

"It develops a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then offer it at profit,"

"It is crazy but the incentives are there."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more environment issues than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into cars and trucks the bigger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the very first place," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely unreasonable strategy."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, stated it was mindful of the problems brought on by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel