pt-sinergi-oleo-nusantara

Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

remarks

354 Comments

New research study questions the environmental impact 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 conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the need across Europe that imports now represent over half of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any testing of what's coming in, specialists believe it is also ripe for scams.

Used cooking oil imports might increase logging

Consumers present 'growing threat' to tropical forests

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

They have actually motivated making use of biofuels as an important methods of curbing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

Biofuels are usually a blend of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 indicates they cancel out the carbon emitted when utilized in engines.

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

So for the last years or two, the usage of used cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have actually become a key component of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging across Europe to gather and process the item.

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

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

Their study suggests this is highly problematic when it pertains to effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has actually long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what individuals in these countries are replacing 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 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 contrast, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million people, managed to collect around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.

"Because we are buying it, they have actually less used cooking oil to utilize on the things that they were formerly utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

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

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

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

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is brought out, some specialists think fraud is swarming.

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

"It is extensively understood that the European Commission has taken relevant actions to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He states a new database being developed by the EU will make sure that trading, accreditation and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The combination of revised accreditation plans and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues in the entire biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he informed BBC News.

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

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

Related topics

COP26

Paris environment arrangement

Climate