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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the environmental effect 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 saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand across Europe that imports now account for over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the research study, external, there's no chance to show these imports are sustainable.

Without any screening of what's can be found in, specialists think it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may increase logging

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be one of the most difficult obstacles for governments all over the world.

They've motivated using biofuels as an essential means of curbing carbon from automobiles and lorries.

Biofuels are usually a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 indicates they cancel out the carbon given off when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once commonly utilized as elements of biodiesel however this practice has been widely challenged due to the fact that it encourages deforestation.

So for the last decade or so, making use of used cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key part of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up across Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there just isn't enough chip fat to walk 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 recommends this is highly problematic when it concerns impacts 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 people in these nations 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 circulation 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 gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to around 5 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 previously utilizing it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil readily available.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some professionals believe fraud is swarming.

The recommendation 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 accreditation schemes in place.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken relevant steps 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 make sure that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

"The combination of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability concerns emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

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

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using 'fake' UCO, potentially causing indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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