1 Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel
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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 effect of rising imports of utilized 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 saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now account for more than 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 likewise ripe for fraud.

Used cooking oil imports may enhance logging

Consumers posture 'growing danger' to tropical forests

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

They've encouraged the use of biofuels as an essential means of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

Biofuels are usually a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.

The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 means they counteract the carbon discharged when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when commonly used as elements of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely rejected due to the fact that it .

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

Chip fat and other waste oils have become a key part of biodiesel with an effective market emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the item.

But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year given that 2014, there simply 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 suggests this is extremely troublesome when it comes to influence 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 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 countries aren't readily available however the circulation of UCO is most 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 comparison, 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 less used cooking oil to use on the important things that they were formerly using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil and that 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 significant issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.

Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently greater than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are just diluting deliveries of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the materials is brought out, some professionals think fraud is rife.

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

"It is widely understood that the European Commission has actually taken pertinent steps to completely 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 guarantee that trading, accreditation and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.

"The combination of revised certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure 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 first mooted in 2018, may not work in stemming presumed scams.

The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel seeking 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 using 'phony' UCO, potentially causing indirect impacts such as logging."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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