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 concerns the ecological impact of rising imports of used 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 demand across Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that’s made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there’s no way to prove these imports are sustainable.

Without any screening of what’s can be found in, specialists believe it is also ripe for fraud.

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

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

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as widely utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has been commonly discredited because it motivates deforestation.

So for the last years approximately, making use of used cooking oil has broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial element of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging across Europe to collect and process the item.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there merely isn’t adequate chip fat to go 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 suggests this is highly troublesome when it concerns effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used 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 . Figures for their exports to other European nations aren’t offered but the circulation of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that’s close to 3 litres per head of used oil that’s collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

“Because we are buying it, they have actually less utilized cooking oil to utilize 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 and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that’s the most inexpensive oil available.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

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

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some specialists think scams is rife.

The tip 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 plans in place.

“It is widely known that the European Commission has taken relevant steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA’s secretary general.

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

“The mix of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns emerge 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, may not work in stemming believed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel seeking 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 dangers of utilizing ‘phony’ UCO, potentially leading to indirect impacts such as deforestation.”

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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