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

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

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

The author says 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 actually needed fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the gas and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study performed for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year because of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up regularly as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report state that if the UK is to meet its responsibilities to EU energy targets the expense 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 study fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

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

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is concerned as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has actually risen rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

"It develops a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"

"It is insane but the rewards 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 fixes. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the bigger 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 consider these indirect effects, biofuels made from veggie oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the first location," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally unreasonable technique."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, said it understood the issues triggered by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project supervisor at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has minimized EU dependence 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 hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some tough decisions on how to move forward on this issue as it faces tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to try and get contract in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from countries with effective agricultural sectors who benefit from the existing plan will be tough.

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

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