Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than fossil fuels'

The UK's "illogical" usage of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank states.

A report by Chatham House, external states the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel sources.

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transport fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has actually needed fuel suppliers to add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study performed for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher expense of fuel at the pump and from filling more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report say that if the UK is to fulfill its responsibilities to EU energy targets the expense to motorists is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

"It is hard to discover any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a very pricey way to reduce carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel requireds are also having hugely distorting results in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is regarded as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It produces a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that offer it at earnings,"

"It is insane but the rewards exist."

There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more environment issues than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect effects, biofuels made from veggie oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very first location," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally unreasonable technique."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, stated it knew the issues triggered by the required. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles worldwide is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project supervisor at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually decreased EU reliance on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

"If there was no biodiesel farmers would simply make their land idle - no food, no feed!"

As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government faces some difficult decisions on how to move forward on this issue as it faces tripling the expenses for vehicle drivers by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to attempt and get arrangement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from countries with powerful agricultural sectors who take advantage of the current arrangement will be difficult.

"When you have a lobby which consists of the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is really hard for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.

County begins recycling chip fat

8 December 2010

How does Qantas fly on chip fat? Video, 00:02:00 How does Qantas fly on chip fat?

13 April 2012

Measuring energy crops' footprint

18 October 2012