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

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

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

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil was even worse for the climate 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 actually needed fuel providers to include a growing percentage of into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

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

The report say that if the UK is to meet its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are an extremely expensive method to reduce carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has actually risen quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards the end of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

"It develops a financial incentive to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that offer it at earnings,"

"It is insane however the incentives are there."

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

"Once you consider these indirect results, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the very first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable method."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, stated it was aware of the issues brought on by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

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

"It has brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually lowered 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 deals with some challenging choices on how to move on on this concern as it faces tripling the costs for drivers by 2020.

Insiders suggest its preference would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from countries with powerful farming sectors who take advantage of the current arrangement will be hard.

"When you have a lobby which consists of the farming sector and the oil sector it is very tough for Governments to make a U-turn," stated Rob Bailey.

County starts 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