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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 rising imports of 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 account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any screening of what's coming in, specialists think it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might boost logging

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the hardest difficulties for governments all over the world.

They've motivated using biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were as soon as widely used as components of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively discredited since it motivates logging.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key element of biodiesel with an efficient industry springing up throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there merely isn't enough 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 recommends this is highly troublesome when it pertains to influence 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 readily available but the flow of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to three litres per head of utilized oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have actually less utilized cooking oil to use 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 largely palm oil, since that's the most inexpensive oil offered.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

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

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is carried out, some professionals think fraud is rife.

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

"It is extensively known 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 says a new database being established 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 guarantee that no sustainability issues emerge 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, might not be effective in stemming thought scams.

The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and air travel seeking to decarbonise by using biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'fake' UCO, possibly resulting in indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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