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Climate change: Growing doubts over chip fat biofuel
21 April 2021
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New research study concerns the environmental effect of rising imports of used cooking oil (UCO) into the UK and Europe.
Chip fat and other oils are considered waste, so when they are utilized to make biodiesel it conserves carbon emissions by displacing fossil oil.
But such is the demand throughout Europe that imports now account for majority of the UCO that's made into fuel.
According to the research study, external, there's no way to prove these imports are sustainable.
Without any screening of what's coming in, professionals believe it is likewise ripe for fraud.
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Reducing emissions from transportation is showing to be among the toughest challenges for governments all over the world.
They've encouraged the usage of biofuels as an important methods of suppressing carbon from cars and trucks and trucks.
Biofuels are generally a mix of fossil fuel and oil made from plants or vegetables.
The fact 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 once extensively used as parts of biodiesel however this practice has been extensively rejected since it encourages logging.
So for the last decade approximately, the usage of used cooking oil has actually broadened massively as an alternative feedstock for fuel.
Chip fat and other waste oils have become an essential component of biodiesel with a springing up throughout 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 just isn't sufficient chip fat to go around.
According to a report from the project group Transport & Environment, external, more than half of the UCO used in Europe is imported.
Their research study recommends this is highly troublesome when it pertains 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 used to feed animals. The report raises the concern of what people in these nations are changing 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 3 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, handled to gather around five 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 formerly using it for," said Greg Archer with Transport & Environment.
"And they're just purchasing more virgin oil and that virgin oil is largely palm oil, because that's the most inexpensive oil available.
"So indirectly, we're just motivating more logging in Southeast Asia."
Another major problem with UCO is the suspicion of fraud.
Because of demand from Europe, the price of UCO is often higher than palm oil. The concern is that some unethical traders are just watering down deliveries of UCO with palm.
As oils of various types are blended in bulk for transportation, and no screening of the products is performed, some experts believe fraud is swarming.
The tip of fraud anywhere along the chain of supply is declined by the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA), who state there are robust certification schemes in place.
"It is widely known that the European Commission has actually taken appropriate actions to totally curb unsound market practices in biofuel markets," stated Angel Alberdi, EWABA's secretary general.
He says a new database being developed by the EU will make sure that trading, certification and sustainability data on all bio-liquids will have to be registered.
"The mix of revised accreditation schemes and the pan-EU track and trace database will guarantee that no sustainability issues 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 be efficient in stemming thought scams.
The report from Transport & Environment mentions that with shipping and aviation wanting to decarbonise by using biofuels, need for UCO could double over the next decade.
"Rising the demand beyond sustainable supply levels would increase these issues, and risks of using 'fake' UCO, possibly leading to indirect impacts such as logging."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc, external.
Related subjects
COP26
Paris climate agreement
Climate
這將刪除頁面 "Climate Change: Growing Doubts Over Chip Fat Biofuel"
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