mission-biofuels-sdn.-bhd

1 Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'Worse than Fossil Fuels'

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

The UK's "illogical" usage of biofuels will cost vehicle 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 rates.

The author says that biodiesel made from grease 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 required fuel providers to include a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the gas and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

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

The report state that if the UK is to meet its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really costly way to decrease carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having extremely distorting effects in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive 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 then sell it at earnings,"

"It is insane however the incentives are there."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more environment problems than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into automobiles the larger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking 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 throughout the EU, said it understood the issues triggered by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles in the world is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.

"It has brought lots of advantages. It has actually enhanced the security of our diesel