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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel

21 April 2021

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New research concerns the ecological 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 utilized to make biodiesel it saves 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 research study, external, there's no way to prove these imports are sustainable.

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

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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be one of the toughest difficulties for governments all over the world.

They have actually motivated the usage of biofuels as a crucial ways of curbing carbon from cars and lorries.

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

The reality that these crops can be re-grown and take in more CO2 indicates they counteract the carbon given off when used in engines.

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

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial component of biodiesel with a reliable market emerging across Europe to collect and process the product.

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

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

Their study recommends this is extremely problematic when it concerns effect on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been used to . The report raises the question of what people 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 nations aren't available but the circulation of UCO is likely to be similar.

With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 litres per head of used oil that's collected and exported to the UK and Ireland alone.

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

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

"And they're just buying more virgin oil which 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 major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of need from Europe, the rate of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The worry is that some unscrupulous traders are merely diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of various types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some professionals believe scams is swarming.

The suggestion 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 location.

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

He says a brand-new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability data 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 make sure 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 idea, which was very first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming suspected fraud.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and aviation looking to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, demand for UCO might double over the next decade.

"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these concerns, and threats of utilizing 'phony' UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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