Frequent fryer

Demand for biofuels made from used cooking oil is soaring, but could there be a sting in the tail?

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A letter based on this article is published in the FT, Risk of palm oil in aviation biofuel is not a flight of fancy

Photo by Wine Dharma on Unsplash

Europe pioneered the use of biofuels as ‘renewable’ alternatives to fossil fuels.

The original EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) 2009 classified palm oil biodiesel, and soy biodiesel among other feedstocks as renewable fuels. However, it quickly became clear that they were far from renewable, and certainly not sustainable. Indeed, virgin oil biodiesel was found to emit up to twice as much CO2 as fossil diesel, once deforestation and land use changes were taken into account.

Under the revised directive, known as RED II, Europe agreed to gradually phase out virgin oil-based fuels linked to deforestation by 2030. In response, Europe has favoured so-called second generation biofuels including agricultural and forest residues, and waste products such as used cooking oil (UCO) and animal fats to meet its renewable fuel targets. Biofuels derived from these waste products are commonly referred to as Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids, or HEFA.

UCO is by far and away the most important feedstock for HEFA. Europe consumed almost 7 Mt of UCO in 2023, according to Stratos Advisors. Almost all of the UCO was used in road transport, with demand driven by EU mandates that require a small but growing blend of biodiesel into road fuel. RED II mandates a minimum share of renewable energy in the EU transport sector of at least 14% by 2030.¹

Europe collects the majority of its UCO from restaurants and food manufacturers with an estimated 7% coming from households. The latter accounts for about half of the continents collection potential, but a lack of collection infrastructure and high transport cost act as a barrier to growing the collection rate much further. With demand for UCO eight times more than it currently collects, Europe needs to import the remainder to fill the gap.

A deficit also exists in the US, where similar road transport blending rules are in place at both state (e.g. the California LCFS) and federal level. In contrast to Europe, the majority of American UCO demand is met by domestic collections, although it still needs to import a significant amount. Nevertheless, the UCO deficit in both regions is likely to balloon later this decade as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandates begin to bite, and other transport sectors such as maritime also come under pressure to cut their emissions.²

Jet zero aspirations

On the 28th November 2023, Virgin Atlantic Flight100 Boeing 787 set off from London heading for New York. Shorn of paying passengers, the plane was stocked full of media, politicians, scientists, and leaders of the aviation industry. The only difference to every other trip from Heathrow was that this flight was the first transatlantic plane powered by UCO biofuel.

Jet fuel must comply with strict standards to ensure safe operability under the conditions encountered during a flight. Flight100 was designed to showcase that those standards had been met. Airlines have understandably been slow to increase their adoption of SAF - it accounted for less than 0.2% of global jet fuel use in 2023 - but that looks set to change if the aspirations of government and the aviation industry are anything to go by (see Blending in: Decarbonising air travel with 'sustainable' fuel).