PT Sinergi Oleo Nusantara

Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘Worse than Nonrenewable Fuel Source’

Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘even worse than fossil fuels’

The UK’s “illogical” use of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

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

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

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

Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the gas and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK motorists will need to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to drivers is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

“It is tough 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 costly way to reduce carbon emissions,” he stated.

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

“It develops a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then offer it at earnings,”

“It is crazy but the incentives exist.”

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more climate problems than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into automobiles the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

“Once you consider these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from using diesel in the first place,” said Rob Bailey.

“Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel – it makes no sense, it is a totally illogical strategy.”

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, said it understood the issues triggered by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have numerous positives.

“Blaming biofuels for all the troubles on the planet is a bit too exaggerated,” said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

“It has brought lots of advantages. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has actually minimized 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 government faces some hard choices on how to progress on this problem as it faces tripling the costs for drivers by 2020.

Insiders suggest its choice would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from countries with effective farming who gain from the present arrangement will be hard.

“When you have a lobby that includes the farming sector and the oil sector it is very 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