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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the environmental effect 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 need throughout Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there's no other way to show these imports are sustainable.

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

Used cooking oil imports may increase logging

Consumers posture 'growing threat' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transport is proving to be among the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.

They've encouraged the use of biofuels as an essential ways of curbing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a mix of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon produced when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been extensively challenged since it encourages logging.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial part of biodiesel with an efficient market springing up across Europe to gather and process the item.

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

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

Their study recommends this is highly troublesome when it comes to effects 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 of what individuals 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 offered but the circulation of UCO is likely to be similar.

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

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

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

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

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are simply watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the materials is performed, some experts believe scams is rife.

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

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

He states a new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

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

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

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation aiming to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using 'phony' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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