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

The UK's "irrational" use of biofuels will cost drivers around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

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

The author states that biodiesel made from grease was worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transportation fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has required fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they provide. These biofuels are generally ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study brought out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK drivers will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the higher expense of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report state that if the UK is to satisfy its commitments to EU energy targets the cost to drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really expensive method to minimize carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting effects in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It creates a monetary reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy however the rewards exist."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the bigger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had actually caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect results, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive 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 an entirely illogical technique."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, stated it knew the problems brought on by the required. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems in the world is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, job supervisor at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually minimized EU dependency on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

"If there was no biodiesel farmers would simply make their land idle - no food, no feed!"

As the UK strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some tough decisions on how to progress on this problem as it deals with tripling the expenses for drivers by 2020.

Insiders suggest its choice would be to attempt and get contract in Brussels on the effects of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with effective agricultural sectors who gain from the existing plan will be hard.

"When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is really tough for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.

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