Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological 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 conserves 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 study, external, there's no other way to prove these imports are sustainable.

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

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the most difficult difficulties for governments all over the world.

They've motivated the use of biofuels as an essential means of curbing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

Biofuels are normally a blend of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 means they counteract the carbon given off when in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely used as components of biodiesel however this practice has been extensively discredited since it encourages logging.

So for the last years 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 an essential element of biodiesel with a reliable market springing up across Europe to collect and process the product.

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

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

Their research study suggests this is highly problematic when it concerns effect on the environment.

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

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three 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, managed to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying 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 just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the most affordable 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 need from Europe, the rate of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are just diluting deliveries 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 experts think fraud is swarming.

The recommendation 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 schemes in location.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has taken pertinent steps to completely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says 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 modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues occur 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 first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming believed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and threats of using 'fake' UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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