Biodiesel statistics may show fraud, industry figure claims

Data showing soaring amounts of used cooking oil being converted into biodiesel has prompted an industry figure to warn that up to two-thirds of it could be fraudulently mislabelled.

Used cooking oil processed into hydrogenated vegetable oil is the most commonly used renewable motor fuel in the Republic, backed by Government policy. The Republic’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires oil companies to ensure that 17 per cent of the motor fuel they sell is renewable, that is, biodiesel or bioethanol.

But if they use processed cooking oil, the obligation falls by about two-thirds, giving them an extra incentive to use that fuel instead, boosting its consumption here.

However, rapidly rising rates of used cooking oil collection and processing in some countries have sparked fears of fraud, while the EU is investigating whether some shipments are mislabelled to evade tax.

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Data from Cologne, Germany-based International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) show what some industry figures argue are impossible rates of growth in used cooking oil collection in some European and Asian countries.

The ISCC data shows that China remained the biggest used cooking oil exporter last year, with output growing to 1.5 billion litres from 1.37 billion in 2021.

EU officials are investigating whether oil from Indonesia is being relabelled in China, and the UK, to dodge extra duties imposed on imports from the south east Asian country.

According to the ISCC, used cooking oil exports from Malta went from zero in 2021 to more than 584 million litres last year.

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Those numbers indicate that everyone on the island nation, with a population of 500,000, used an average of 1,168.5 litres of cooking oil last year, up from from no recorded use in 2021.

Italy’s output rose to 678 million litres last year from 51 million in 2021, ranking it second to China and one place ahead of Malta.

Malaysian output rose to 421 million litres last year from 328.5 million in 2021. The United Arab Emirates trebled collection of used cooking oil last year to 84.6 million litres from 27 million in 2021.

Singapore was also a prominent exporter, collecting more than 43 million litres of used cooking oil in 2022, one million more than the previous year.

James Cogan, industry and policy adviser with specialist agribusiness group, Clonbio, whose products include bioethanol, an alternative to diesel produced from cooking oil, argues that 50 per cent to 60 per cent of used cooking oil could be fake.

“That’s because it’s simply impossible for Malaysia, Italy, Malta, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore to be generating and collecting such vast volumes of used cooking oil,” he says. “If the figures are to be believed they managed to collect 10 times the European average in 2022.”

The industry maintains that virgin palm oil, whose production requires the destruction of southeast Asian rainforest, is increasingly being substituted for used cooking oil.

The Department of Transport recently established a working group to determine the Republic’s possible vulnerability to biofuel fraud.

A department spokeswoman explained that the National Oil Reserves Agency (Nora) was responsible for ensuring compliance with renewable fuel regulations.

“The department has been assured by the Nora with regard to the sustainability of current biofuel supply,” she said.