Climate change: Growing doubts over
chip fat biofuel
21 April 2021
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New research study concerns the environmental effect of increasing 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 more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel.
According to the study, external, there's no method to prove these imports are sustainable.
With no screening of what's coming in, experts think it is also ripe for scams.
Used cooking oil imports might boost logging
Consumers posture 'growing danger' to
tropical forests
Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be among the most difficult difficulties for governments all over the world.
They have actually
encouraged making use of biofuels as an important means of suppressing carbon from vehicles and lorries.
Biofuels are typically a blend of
fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.
The fact that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 implies they counteract the carbon produced when used in engines.
Soy and palm oil were when widely utilized as
components of biodiesel however this practice has been widely rejected since it encourages deforestation.
So for the last years approximately, the use of used cooking oil has broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.
Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a crucial element of
biodiesel with an
efficient market emerging across Europe to collect and process the product.
But with the quantity of
biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there just isn't adequate chip fat to go around.
According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, majority of the UCO used in Europe is imported.
Their research study recommends 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
utilized to feed animals. The
report raises the concern of what people in these nations 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 countries aren't available however the flow 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 collected and exported to the UK and
Ireland alone.
By contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals,
managed to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.
"Because we are purchasing it, they have less used cooking oil to use on the things that they were previously utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.
"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil readily available.
"So indirectly, we're just
encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia."
Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.
Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are just diluting shipments of UCO with palm.
As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the materials is carried out, some experts think scams is swarming.
The suggestion of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected 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 taken appropriate steps to totally suppress unsound market practices in
biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.
He states 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 revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability concerns 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 work in stemming presumed fraud.
The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.
"Rising the need beyond
sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and
threats of using 'phony' UCO, potentially leading to indirect effects such as logging."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.
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