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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the environmental effect of rising imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about 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 majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no testing of what's coming in, professionals believe it is also ripe for fraud.

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

They've encouraged using biofuels as an important methods of curbing carbon from cars and lorries.

Biofuels are usually a mix of fossil fuel 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 emitted when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once extensively utilized as parts of biodiesel however this practice has actually been commonly challenged because it motivates deforestation.

So for the last decade approximately, the usage of used cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being an essential element of biodiesel with an efficient industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there simply isn't sufficient chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely problematic when it concerns influence on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material 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 nations aren't readily available but the flow of UCO is most likely to be similar.

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

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive 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 cost of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are just diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is carried out, some experts think 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 say there are robust certification plans in location.

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

He states a new database being developed by the EU will ensure that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

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

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

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by using biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next decade.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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