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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 impact of increasing imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.

Chip fat and other oils are thought about waste, so when they are utilized to make it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

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

Used cooking oil imports might boost logging

Consumers position 'growing threat' to tropical forests

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

They have actually motivated using biofuels as a crucial methods of suppressing carbon from vehicles and lorries.

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 implies they counteract the carbon released when used in engines.

Soy and palm oil were once widely used as components of biodiesel but this practice has actually been commonly discredited since it encourages logging.

So for the last decade or two, the use of utilized cooking oil has expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key element of biodiesel with an efficient market springing up throughout Europe to collect and process the item.

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

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

Their research study recommends this is extremely bothersome 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 actually long been used to feed animals. The report raises the question 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 nations aren't readily available but the flow of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 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 collect around five million litres of UCO in 2019.

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

"And they're just buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is mainly palm oil, since that's the cheapest oil available.

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

Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is typically higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are simply watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is performed, some experts think fraud is rife.

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

"It is commonly understood that the European Commission has taken appropriate steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated 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 have 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 whole 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 be effective in stemming presumed scams.

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

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

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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