Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need throughout Europe that imports now account for 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.

Without any screening of what's coming in, specialists think it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might increase logging

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the hardest obstacles for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated making use of biofuels as an important methods of curbing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

Biofuels are generally a blend of source and oil made from plants or veggies.

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

Soy and palm oil were when extensively utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely discredited because it motivates logging.

So for the last decade approximately, using utilized cooking oil has expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key part of biodiesel with a reliable market 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 considering that 2014, there just isn't sufficient chip fat to walk 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 comes to impacts on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern 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 nations aren't readily available but 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 used oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unethical traders are just 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 scams is swarming.

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

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

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

"The combination of modified accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems emerge 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, might not work in stemming thought scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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