Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the environmental impact of rising 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 throughout Europe that imports now represent over half 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.

With no screening of what's coming in, experts believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the hardest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They've encouraged using biofuels as an essential methods of suppressing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are generally 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 cancel out the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly utilized as elements of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively discredited because it encourages deforestation.

So for the last decade approximately, the usage of used cooking oil has broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a crucial part of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging across Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the quantity of made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there simply isn't adequate chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study suggests this is highly bothersome 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 question 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 however the flow of UCO is 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, handled to gather around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the most inexpensive oil offered.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unethical traders are just diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

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

The tip 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 certification schemes in place.

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

He states a new database being developed by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The combination of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems emerge 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 very first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming thought fraud.

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 threats of utilizing 'phony' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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