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Climate change: 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 thought about waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it saves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.

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

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

With no testing of what's can be found in, specialists think it is likewise ripe for scams.

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

They have actually encouraged the use of biofuels as an important ways of curbing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.

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

The fact that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 suggests they counteract the carbon produced when utilized in engines.

Soy and palm oil were when widely utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely challenged due to the fact that it motivates logging.

So for the last decade approximately, the usage of utilized cooking oil has actually expanded enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.

Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential component of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up across 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 merely isn't sufficient chip fat to go around.

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

Their research study recommends this is highly troublesome when it comes to effects on the environment.

While UCO is thought about a waste material in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what individuals 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 readily available however the circulation of UCO is most likely to be comparable.

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

By comparison, Thailand, which has a population of 70 million individuals, 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 important things that they were previously utilizing it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.

"And they're simply purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is mostly palm oil, since that's the most affordable oil readily available.

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

Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of scams.

Because of need from Europe, the cost of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The worry is that some dishonest traders are just diluting shipments of UCO with palm.

As oils of different types are blended in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is performed, some experts believe scams is swarming.

The idea of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification plans in place.

"It is widely known that the European Commission has taken appropriate steps to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.

He says a new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, certification 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 guarantee that no arise in the entire 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, might not work in stemming presumed scams.

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

"Rising the need beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'fake' UCO, potentially causing indirect effects such as deforestation."

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.

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