Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel
21 April 2021
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New research study concerns the ecological impact 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 demand throughout Europe that imports now represent majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.
According to the study, external, there's no way to show these imports are sustainable.
With no screening of what's being available in, specialists believe it is also ripe for fraud.
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Reducing emissions from transportation is proving to be among the most difficult challenges for governments all over the world.
They have actually motivated making use of biofuels as an important ways of curbing carbon from vehicles and trucks.
Biofuels are normally 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 indicates they counteract the carbon given off when used in engines.
Soy and palm oil were as soon as extensively utilized as parts of biodiesel but this practice has been extensively discredited due to the fact that it motivates deforestation.
So for the last years or so, making use of used cooking oil has expanded massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.
Chip fat and other waste oils have ended up being a key element of biodiesel with a reliable industry emerging throughout Europe to gather and process the product.
But with the amount of biodiesel made from UCO increasing by around 40% every year since 2014, there just isn't sufficient chip fat to walk around.
According to a report from the campaign group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO utilized in Europe is imported.
Their research study recommends this is extremely problematic when it concerns effects on the environment.
While UCO is considered a waste product in the UK, in China, Indonesia and Malaysia it has long been utilized 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 countries aren't readily available but the flow of UCO is most likely to be comparable.
With a population of around 33 million, that's close to 3 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 people, managed to collect 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," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.
"And they're simply buying more virgin oil which virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil readily available.
"So indirectly, we're just encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia."
Another major issue with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.
Because of demand from Europe, the cost of UCO is frequently higher than palm oil. The worry is that some deceitful traders are merely watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.
As oils of different types are mixed in bulk for transport, and no screening of the products is performed, some experts think fraud is rife.
The idea of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is turned down by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust certification plans in place.
"It is extensively known that the European Commission has taken pertinent actions to entirely 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 information on all bio-liquids will have to be signed up.
"The mix of modified certification schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability concerns arise 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, may not work in stemming suspected fraud.
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 concerns, and threats of using 'phony' UCO, potentially leading to indirect impacts such as logging."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.
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Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel
eqojana360049 edited this page 2025-01-12 05:32:06 +01:00