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

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

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

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

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 proportion of sustainable materials into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are generally 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 suggests that UK motorists will need to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly as biofuels have a lower energy content.

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

“It is difficult to discover any good news,” Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.

“Biofuels increase expenses and they are an extremely pricey way to reduce carbon emissions,” he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting results in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards the end of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

“It produces a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that offer it at profit,”

“It is crazy however the rewards are there.”

There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more climate issues than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the larger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

“Once you take into account these indirect results, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using diesel in the very first location,” stated Rob Bailey.

“Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely irrational technique.”

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, said it knew the problems caused by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

“Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties worldwide is a bit too overstated,” said Isabelle Maurizi, job manager at the EBB.

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