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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 questions the environmental impact of rising imports of used 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 across Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.

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

Without any screening of what's coming in, specialists believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports might increase deforestation

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

They've encouraged making use of biofuels as an important methods of suppressing carbon from vehicles and trucks.

Biofuels are normally a mix of nonrenewable fuel source and oil made from plants or veggies.

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and soak up more CO2 implies they cancel out the carbon emitted when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were as soon as widely utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been commonly challenged because it encourages deforestation.

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 become a element of biodiesel with an effective industry emerging across Europe to collect and process the item.

But with the amount 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 used in Europe is imported.

Their research study suggests this is highly troublesome when it concerns effects 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 question of what people in these nations 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 available however the flow of UCO is likely to be similar.

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

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

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the least expensive oil available.

"So indirectly, we're simply motivating more logging in Southeast Asia."

Another significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is typically greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are just watering down shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some experts 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 plans in location.

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

He states a new database being established by the EU will make sure that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.

"The combination of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability issues develop in the whole biofuels and bio-liquids supply chain," he told BBC News.

Others in the field are worried that the database idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming presumed fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment points out 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 issues, and dangers of utilizing 'fake' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect effects such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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