Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the environmental impact of increasing 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 need across Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any testing of what's can be found in, professionals believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might increase logging

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

They've motivated making use of biofuels as an essential methods of curbing carbon from cars and lorries.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were when widely used as components of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively rejected because it encourages logging.

So for the last decade approximately, using utilized cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a crucial element of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging across Europe to gather and process the item.

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

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

Their research study recommends this is highly troublesome when it comes to effects on the environment.

While UCO is considered 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 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 available 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 utilized oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

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

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is performed, some experts believe fraud is rife.

The idea of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust accreditation plans in place.

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

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

"The combination of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no emerge in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

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

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and air travel seeking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and risks of using 'phony' UCO, possibly leading to indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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