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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the ecological effect 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 utilized to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the research 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 enhance deforestation

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

They've encouraged using biofuels as a crucial means of curbing carbon from cars and lorries.

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

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and were when widely used as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely challenged due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last years or two, making use of utilized cooking oil has expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being an essential element of biodiesel with a reliable 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 because 2014, there just isn't enough chip fat to walk around.

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely troublesome when it concerns influence 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 concern of what people in these countries are replacing 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 most likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of utilized 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 collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil available.

"So indirectly, we're just motivating 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 concern is that some unethical traders are simply diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is performed, some experts think fraud is swarming.

The recommendation 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 plans in place.

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate actions to completely suppress 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, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The mix of revised certification plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns develop in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not be reliable in stemming suspected fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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