Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘worse than nonrenewable fuel sources’

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 says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food rates.

The author states that biodiesel made from grease was even 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 include a growing proportion of sustainable into the gas and diesel they supply. 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 says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK motorists 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 material.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to drivers is most 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, told BBC News.

“Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really pricey method to minimize carbon emissions,” he said.

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

“It produces a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that sell it at revenue,”

“It is crazy but the incentives exist.”

There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more climate issues than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

“Once you take into account these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get 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 completely unreasonable technique.”

Biofuel advantages

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

“Blaming biofuels for all the problems worldwide is a bit too overstated,” stated Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.

“It has actually brought great deals of advantages. It has enhanced the security of our diesel