Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the ecological impact of increasing 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 throughout Europe that imports now represent majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

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

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be one of the most difficult obstacles for federal governments all over the world.

They've motivated making use of biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a mix 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 indicates they cancel out the carbon given off when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once extensively utilized as elements of biodiesel however this practice has been widely rejected due to the fact that it motivates logging.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential element of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging throughout Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there simply 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 research study recommends this is extremely problematic when it concerns impacts 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 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 however the flow 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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, managed to gather around five 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 previously utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil offered.

"So indirectly, we're just motivating more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are simply watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some specialists believe scams is swarming.

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

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

He says a new database being established by the EU will guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The mix of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability problems occur in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

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

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of utilizing 'fake' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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