Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the environmental impact of increasing imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are considered waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that’s made into fuel.

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

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

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

They’ve motivated using biofuels as an essential ways of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.

Biofuels are usually 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 cancel out the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once commonly used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been widely discredited due to the fact that it motivates deforestation.

So for the last years approximately, using used cooking oil has broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a key part of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there simply isn’t adequate chip fat to walk around.

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

Their study suggests this is extremely problematic when it pertains to effects on the .

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what individuals 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 readily available but 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 used oil that’s collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they’re simply buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that’s the least expensive oil offered.

"So indirectly, we’re simply encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia.“

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are simply diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some professionals believe fraud is rife.

The tip of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust accreditation schemes in place.

"It is extensively known that the European Commission has taken appropriate actions to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets,” stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA’s secretary general.

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

"The combination of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability problems 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, might not be efficient in stemming believed fraud.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and risks of utilizing ‘phony’ UCO, possibly leading to indirect impacts such as deforestation.“

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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