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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological impact of rising imports of utilized 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

According to the research study, external, there's no chance to prove these imports are sustainable.

With no testing of what's being available in, specialists believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.

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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be one of the most difficult difficulties for federal governments all over the world.

They've motivated using biofuels as an important methods of curbing carbon from cars and lorries.

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as widely used as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been widely discredited due to the fact that it encourages logging.

So for the last decade or so, the usage of utilized cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial element of biodiesel with an efficient industry emerging throughout Europe to collect and process the item.

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

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

Their study recommends this is extremely problematic when it concerns effects on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used 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 nations 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 three litres per head of utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to 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 using it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil offered.

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

Another significant problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is typically higher 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 transport, and no testing of the materials is carried out, some experts think fraud is rife.

The recommendation of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification plans in place.

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has actually taken relevant actions to entirely 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 guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The combination of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability concerns arise 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 very first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming thought scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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