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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study questions the ecological impact 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 utilized to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand across Europe that imports now represent 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.

With no screening of what's being available in, professionals believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be one of the toughest obstacles for governments all over the world.

They have actually encouraged using biofuels as a crucial ways of curbing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are generally a mix of and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 suggests they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely used as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been extensively challenged due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last years approximately, making use of utilized cooking oil has actually broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key component of biodiesel with a reliable industry emerging across Europe to collect and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there just isn't sufficient chip fat to go 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 effect on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used 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 offered however 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 used oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, handled to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have actually 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 just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil readily available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are just watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the materials is brought out, some experts think fraud is rife.

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

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent steps to completely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

"The combination of revised 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 concerned that the database idea, which was first mooted in 2018, might not be reliable in stemming suspected scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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