GitLab

Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'

The UK's "unreasonable" use of biofuels will cost drivers around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

A report by Chatham House, external says the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food costs.

The author states that biodiesel made from veggie oil was worse for the climate than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research carried out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level implies that UK drivers will need to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly as biofuels have a lower energy material.

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

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

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

The EU biofuel requireds are also having hugely distorting results in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the rate for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It creates a financial reward to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy however the incentives are there."

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more environment problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the larger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the first place," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking vehicle 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 market, external across the EU, said it knew the problems brought on by the required. But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too exaggerated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has lowered EU dependence 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 strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some hard choices on how to move forward on this problem as it deals with tripling the expenses for motorists by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to try and get contract in Brussels on the effects of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from countries with powerful farming sectors who benefit from the present plan will be hard.

"When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is really tough for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.

County starts 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