Climate modification: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel
21 April 2021
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New research study concerns the environmental effect of rising 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 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 chance to show these imports are sustainable.
With no screening of what's can be found in, professionals think it is also ripe for scams.
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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.
They have actually motivated the use of biofuels as an important ways of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and lorries.
Biofuels are normally a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.
The fact that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 implies they counteract the carbon produced when utilized in engines.
Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly discredited due to the fact that it motivates logging.
So for the last years approximately, the usage of used cooking oil has expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.
Chip fat and other waste oils have actually ended up being a crucial part of biodiesel with an effective market emerging across Europe to collect and process the product.
But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year considering that 2014, there simply isn't fat to walk around.
According to a report from the campaign group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO used in Europe is imported.
Their study suggests this is highly troublesome when it comes to effect on the environment.
While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern 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 but the flow of UCO is 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 comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.
"Because we are buying it, they have actually less utilized cooking oil to use on the things that they were formerly using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.
"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mainly palm oil, because that's the most affordable oil readily available.
"So indirectly, we're simply encouraging more logging in Southeast Asia."
Another significant problem 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 dishonest traders are just diluting deliveries 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 believe scams is swarming.
The recommendation 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 schemes in location.
"It is extensively known that the European Commission has actually taken relevant steps to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.
He says a new database being established by the EU will make sure that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.
"The mix of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will make sure that no sustainability problems emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.
Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming presumed scams.
The report from Transport & Environment points out that with shipping and aviation looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO could double over the next years.
"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and dangers of using 'fake' UCO, possibly leading to indirect impacts such as logging."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.
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Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel
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