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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the ecological 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 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 show these imports are sustainable.

Without any testing of what's coming in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

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

They've motivated the usage of biofuels as an essential methods of suppressing carbon from cars and lorries.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they counteract the carbon given off when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been extensively discredited since it motivates logging.

So for the last years or two, the usage of used cooking oil has expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key part of biodiesel with a reliable industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there merely isn't sufficient chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study recommends this is extremely troublesome 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 long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the question 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 offered however 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 utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

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

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the most inexpensive oil offered.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is carried out, some experts think fraud 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 say there are robust accreditation plans in location.

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has taken pertinent actions to entirely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says 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 mix of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability problems emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, might not be efficient in stemming suspected scams.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of utilizing 'fake' UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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