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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 utilized 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now represent more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any screening of what's being available in, experts believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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

They've motivated the usage of biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from automobiles 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 soak up more CO2 implies they counteract the carbon given off when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has been widely challenged due to the fact that it motivates logging.

So for the last decade approximately, making use of utilized cooking oil has expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

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

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there merely isn't sufficient chip fat to walk around.

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

Their research study suggests this is extremely bothersome when it concerns effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about 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 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 likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 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 collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're simply buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the materials is carried out, some experts think scams is swarming.

The suggestion of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation plans in location.

"It is extensively understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent actions to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

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

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, might not be efficient in stemming presumed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions 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 threats of utilizing 'fake' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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