Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research 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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there's no chance to prove these imports are sustainable.

With no screening of what's being available in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might improve deforestation

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

They have actually motivated the use of biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 suggests they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely utilized as elements of biodiesel however this practice has actually been extensively discredited since it motivates deforestation.

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

and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial element of biodiesel with a reliable market springing up throughout Europe to collect and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there just isn't enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely troublesome when it comes to effects on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used 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 available but the flow 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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is brought out, some professionals believe fraud is swarming.

The idea of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust accreditation schemes in place.

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

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

"The combination of revised 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 worried that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming thought fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel looking to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next years.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and risks of using 'phony' UCO, possibly leading to indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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