Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the environmental effect 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 used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent majority of the UCO that’s made into fuel.

According to the study, external, there’s no chance to prove these imports are .

With no testing of what’s being available in, experts believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance deforestation

Consumers posture ‘growing risk’ to tropical forests

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

They’ve encouraged using biofuels as a crucial ways of suppressing carbon from automobiles and trucks.

Biofuels are usually a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

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

Soy and palm oil were when widely utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been widely challenged since it motivates deforestation.

So for the last decade approximately, using utilized cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key element of biodiesel with an efficient market emerging 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 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 suggests this is highly problematic when it concerns effects on the environment.

While UCO is considered a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question of what people 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 countries aren’t readily available however the circulation of UCO is 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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

“Because we are purchasing it, they have less utilized cooking oil to use on the things that they were previously utilizing it for,” stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

“And they’re simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that’s the least expensive oil offered.

“So indirectly, we’re just encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia.”

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The worry is that some dishonest traders are merely diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is brought out, some specialists believe fraud is swarming.

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

“It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken appropriate steps 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 information on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

“The mix of modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns develop in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain,” he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are concerned that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming thought scams.

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

“Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of using ‘phony’ UCO, possibly causing indirect effects such as logging.”

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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