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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study 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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand across Europe that imports now account for majority 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 testing of what's coming in, specialists believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might boost logging

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

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

Biofuels are typically 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 means they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly utilized as elements of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly challenged due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last years approximately, the use of used cooking oil has broadened enormously as an alternative for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential component of biodiesel with a reliable market springing up throughout Europe to collect and process the product.

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

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

Their study suggests this is highly troublesome when it concerns effect on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the question 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 available however the circulation of UCO is 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 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 utilized cooking oil to use on the things that they were previously using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the least expensive oil readily available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the rate of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The worry is that some dishonest traders are merely watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is carried out, some professionals think fraud is rife.

The suggestion 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 accreditation plans in location.

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

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

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

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming thought fraud.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of using 'fake' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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