mission-newenergy-limited

1 Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

comments

354 Comments

New research the environmental effect of increasing imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no screening of what's can be found in, professionals believe it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might boost logging

Consumers pose 'growing threat' to tropical forests

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

They have actually motivated using biofuels as a crucial methods of curbing carbon from cars and lorries.

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

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon discharged when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when extensively used as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly rejected since it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential part 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 merely isn't enough chip fat to go around.

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

Their study recommends this is extremely troublesome when it comes to effect 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 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 nations aren't available however 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 used 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 collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are purchasing it, they have less utilized cooking oil to utilize on the important 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 most affordable oil readily available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the price of UCO is often greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are merely diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some professionals think scams is swarming.

The idea 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 accreditation plans in location.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken appropriate actions to completely curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a brand-new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The mix of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns 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, might not be reliable in stemming presumed scams.

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

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of using 'phony' UCO, potentially leading to indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related subjects

COP26

Paris climate arrangement

Climate