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Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the environmental 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 utilized to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand across 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, experts think it is also ripe for scams.

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

They have actually encouraged the use of biofuels as an important methods of suppressing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 means they counteract the carbon discharged when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely used as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely rejected because it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being an essential component of biodiesel with an efficient industry springing up across Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there merely isn't enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study suggests this is extremely troublesome when it pertains to effects 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 individuals 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 however the flow of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

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 people, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have actually less utilized cooking oil to utilize on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil readily available.

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are just diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is carried out, some experts believe fraud is swarming.

The idea 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 location.

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

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

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

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming suspected fraud.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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