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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the environmental impact of rising 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 represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's can be found in, specialists think it is likewise ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might increase deforestation

Consumers position 'growing threat' to tropical forests

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

They have actually encouraged using biofuels as an important ways of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.

Biofuels are usually a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

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

Soy and palm oil were when widely used as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been extensively discredited since it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial element of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up throughout Europe to collect and process the item.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there just 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 suggests this is highly bothersome when it pertains to effects on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what individuals 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 aren't readily available however the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.

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 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 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 just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the least expensive oil available.

"So indirectly, we're just motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous 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 materials is performed, some experts think fraud is rife.

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

"It is extensively understood that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate steps to entirely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said 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 have to be signed up.

"The combination of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns develop 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 first mooted in 2018, might not be efficient in stemming thought scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using 'fake' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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