Climate modification: 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout 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 prove these imports are sustainable.

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

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

They've encouraged using biofuels as an important ways of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were when widely utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly discredited due to the fact that it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key element of biodiesel with an effective 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 enough chip fat to go around.

According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, majority of the UCO used in Europe is imported.

Their study recommends this is extremely bothersome when it comes to effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals 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 available but the circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

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

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have actually less used cooking oil to utilize on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil readily available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is performed, some experts think fraud is swarming.

The tip 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 plans in place.

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has taken pertinent actions to totally 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, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

"The combination of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming thought scams.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and aviation seeking 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 threats of using 'phony' UCO, possibly leading to indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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