Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the ecological impact of rising imports of utilized 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 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.

Without any testing of what’s being available in, experts believe it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might boost logging

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

They have actually encouraged the use of biofuels as an important methods of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are usually a mix of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or veggies.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 implies they counteract the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively utilized as elements of biodiesel however this has been commonly discredited due to the fact that it motivates deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up across Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the amount 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 project group Transport & Environment, external, majority of the UCO used in Europe is imported.

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

While UCO is considered 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 countries 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 countries aren’t readily available but the circulation of UCO is 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, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

“Because we are buying it, they have actually less utilized cooking oil to use on the important things that they were formerly using it for,” stated 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 most affordable oil readily available.

“So indirectly, we’re simply motivating more deforestation in Southeast Asia.”

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is brought out, some specialists believe scams is rife.

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

“It is extensively known that the European Commission has taken appropriate actions to totally suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA’s secretary general.

He states a new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability information 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 informed BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming suspected fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and air travel seeking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next years.

“Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using ‘fake’ UCO, possibly leading to indirect effects such as logging.”

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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