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

The UK's "irrational" use 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 veggie oil 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 actually needed fuel providers to include a growing proportion of sustainable products into the petrol 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 performed for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level means that UK motorists will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly as biofuels have a lower energy content.

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

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very expensive way to decrease 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 types of biodiesel, the price for it has actually risen quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It creates a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy but the rewards exist."

There are likewise worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is developing 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 resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect effects, biofuels made from veggie oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the first place," stated Rob Bailey.

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

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, stated it was conscious of the issues caused by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems in the world is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has brought great deals of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has minimized EU dependency on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

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

As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government faces some difficult choices on how to progress on this issue as it deals with tripling the expenses for drivers by 2020.

Insiders suggest its preference would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from nations with effective agricultural sectors who take advantage of the existing arrangement will be difficult.

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

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