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Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research study concerns the ecological effect of rising imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are considered waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

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

Used cooking oil imports might improve logging

Consumers posture 'growing threat' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be one of the hardest challenges for governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated the use of biofuels as an essential ways of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and lorries.

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

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

Soy and palm oil were once widely utilized as components of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively rejected due to the fact that it encourages deforestation.

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with an effective industry springing up 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 merely isn't sufficient 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 study recommends this is extremely bothersome 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 question 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 readily available however the flow 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 gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"Because we are buying it, they have less used cooking oil to use on the important things that they were formerly using it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

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

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unscrupulous traders are simply watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some professionals believe scams is rife.

The suggestion of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification plans in location.

"It is commonly known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a brand-new database being developed by the EU will guarantee that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The combination of modified accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns emerge in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database concept, which was first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming thought fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation seeking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO might double over the next years.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and dangers of using 'fake' UCO, possibly causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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