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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the environmental effect 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 need across Europe that imports now represent majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

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

Used cooking oil imports might increase deforestation

Consumers pose 'growing hazard' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transport is proving to be one of the toughest challenges for all over the world.

They've encouraged the use of biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 indicates they cancel out the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has been widely discredited because it encourages deforestation.

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

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

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there simply isn't adequate chip fat to go around.

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

Their study suggests this is highly problematic when it concerns 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 concern of what people in these nations are replacing 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 circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

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

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

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

"And they're just buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil offered.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The worry is that some unethical traders are simply diluting shipments 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 professionals believe fraud is rife.

The tip of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification schemes in location.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken relevant actions to completely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

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

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not be effective in stemming thought scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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