Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and than fossil fuels'

The UK’s “illogical” use of biofuels will cost vehicle 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 likewise increase food prices.

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

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually needed fuel providers to include a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the gas and diesel they supply. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level means that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an additional ₤ 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 say that if the UK is to meet its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely costly method to decrease carbon emissions,” he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting impacts in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the rate for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary incentive to purchase 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 but the rewards exist.“

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 put into cars and trucks the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very first place,” said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely illogical method.“

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, said it understood the problems triggered by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.

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

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