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1 Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel

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 considered waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

Without any screening of what's can be found in, specialists think it is likewise ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be one of the toughest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

They have actually encouraged making use of biofuels as a crucial methods of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks.

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 means they counteract the carbon released when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely used as parts of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely discredited due to the fact that it motivates logging.

So for the last years or so, making use of utilized cooking oil has actually broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key element of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging throughout Europe to collect and process the product.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there simply isn't sufficient chip 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 research study suggests this is extremely problematic when it pertains to impacts on the environment.

While UCO is considered 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 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 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 gathered 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 purchasing it, they have less used cooking oil to use on the important 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 inexpensive oil readily available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the materials is performed, some experts think scams is swarming.

The tip of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is rejected by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust accreditation plans in place.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has taken appropriate steps to totally suppress unsound market practices in markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He states a new database being developed by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The mix of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems develop 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 effective in stemming presumed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and air travel wanting to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO could double over the next decade.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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