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1 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 study questions the environmental effect of increasing imports of utilized 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 represent majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

With no screening of what's being available in, professionals believe it is also ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

Consumers position 'growing danger' to tropical forests

Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the hardest challenges for federal governments all over the world.

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

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

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 means they cancel out the carbon emitted when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when extensively used as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly challenged because it encourages logging.

So for the last years or so, using utilized 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 efficient industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the product.

But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year because 2014, there just isn't adequate chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely problematic when it comes to effect 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 question 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 utilized oil that's gathered and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

"Because we are buying it, they have 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 buying more virgin oil and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil readily available.

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

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The concern is that some dishonest traders are just diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no testing of the products is performed, some professionals think fraud is rife.

The tip 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 certification schemes in place.

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent steps to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a brand-new database being established by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will need to be signed up.

"The mix of modified accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability problems emerge in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

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

The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation aiming to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and threats of utilizing 'phony' UCO, possibly causing indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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