Climate modification: 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 considered waste, so when they are used to make biodiesel it conserves 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 research study, external, there's no chance to show these imports are sustainable.
Without any screening of what's coming in, experts think it is also ripe for fraud.
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Reducing emissions from transport is showing to be one of the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.
They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as an essential methods of curbing carbon from automobiles and lorries.
Biofuels are generally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or veggies.
The truth that these crops can be re-grown and absorb more CO2 suggests they cancel out the carbon produced when utilized in engines.
Soy and palm oil were as soon as widely utilized as components of biodiesel however this practice has actually been widely challenged due to the fact that it .
So for the last decade or so, the use of utilized cooking oil has actually broadened enormously as an alternative feedstock for fuel.
Chip fat and other waste oils have become a crucial part of biodiesel with a reliable industry springing up across Europe to collect and process the item.
But with the quantity of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there just isn't enough chip fat to walk around.
According to a report from the campaign group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO used in Europe is imported.
Their research study recommends this is extremely troublesome 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 long been utilized to feed animals. 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 countries aren't offered but the flow of UCO is likely to be comparable.
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, handled to gather around 5 million litres of UCO in 2019.
"Because we are buying it, they have actually less used cooking oil to use on the important things that they were formerly using it for," stated Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.
"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the cheapest oil available.
"So indirectly, we're simply motivating more logging in Southeast Asia."
Another significant issue 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 shipments of UCO with palm.
As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no testing of the products is performed, some experts think scams is swarming.
The suggestion of scams anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who say there are robust certification plans in place.
"It is commonly known that the European Commission has taken appropriate actions to entirely suppress unsound market practices in biofuel markets," said Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.
He states a brand-new database being established by the EU will ensure that trading, certification and sustainability information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.
"The combination of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will ensure that no sustainability issues emerge 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 first mooted in 2018, might not work in stemming believed scams.
The report from Transport & Environment explains that with shipping and air travel wanting to decarbonise by utilizing biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next years.
"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and threats of utilizing 'phony' UCO, potentially resulting in indirect impacts such as deforestation."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.
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Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel
Ben Wager edited this page 2025-01-12 09:03:48 +01:00