1 Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the environmental impact 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 utilized to make biodiesel it conserves 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 study, external, there's no other way to show these imports are sustainable.

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

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

Consumers pose 'growing threat' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the toughest obstacles for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated using biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

Biofuels are typically a blend of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or veggies.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they counteract the carbon emitted when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely utilized as elements of biodiesel however this practice has actually been commonly rejected because it motivates logging.

So for the last decade or two, the use of used cooking oil has expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being an essential element of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up throughout Europe to gather 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 enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is highly problematic when it comes to influence on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern 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 readily available but the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three 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 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 formerly using it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil available.

"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 typically greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are simply diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some specialists think fraud is rife.

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

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has actually taken relevant steps to totally suppress 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 data on all bio-liquids will need to be registered.

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

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, 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 looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next decade.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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