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Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research questions the ecological impact of increasing 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 throughout 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 testing of what's coming in, experts believe it is likewise ripe for scams.

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

They have actually encouraged making use of biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

Biofuels are normally a blend of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 implies they cancel out the carbon produced when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as commonly used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively rejected because it motivates deforestation.

So for the last decade or two, making use of oil has actually expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial element of biodiesel with an efficient 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 because 2014, there simply isn't enough chip fat to walk around.

According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO used in Europe is imported.

Their study recommends this is highly problematic when it pertains to impacts on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people in these countries 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 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 contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil readily available.

"So indirectly, we're just encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia."

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is brought out, some experts think fraud is swarming.

The tip 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 widely known that the European Commission has actually taken relevant actions to completely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

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

"The mix of modified accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems occur in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming presumed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel seeking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and threats of using 'phony' UCO, possibly leading to indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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