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Used Cooking Oil to Biodiesel Chain towards 2030
Turning Waste into Resource
EUBIA has hosted the round table Used Cooking Oil to Biodiesel Chain towards 2030 – Turning Waste into Resource. This event took place last March 3 2015 with the support of the RecOil project team. Representatives of EU institutions, NGOs, industries and media, discussed the current barriers and the opportunities for the market of the Used Cooking Oil based biodiesel.
The event was opened by the project officer, Emilio Font de Mora (EASME). Orlando Paraíba (ENA), project coordinator, gave an overview of the main outcomes produced by the RecOil project. He showed how the participation of both citizens and public authorities is crucial in the UCO collection systems and he presented the RecOil online tool.
Juan Elías Vergara Míguez (EUBIA) summarized the main biofiuels and waste policies impacting the development of UCO based biodiesel on EU level.
Afterwards the Round Table, moderated by Theocharis Tsoutsos (Technical University of Crete) was centred on topics such as the ILUC Directive and the biofuels policy beyond 2020, the need for certification, labbeling or national incentives to UCO.
Despite its collection and transport costs, UCO is a relatively cheap feedstock. In addition its transformation process is not considered as technologically advanced nor very expensive. For these reasons, the last ILUC Directive version approved by the European Parliament (February 2015), doesn’t include UCO based biodiesel in the advanced biofuels list while UCO is eligible for double counting towards the 10% decarbonization goal by 2020. UCO should be supported for its high GHG emissions saving power, in accordance with the Fuel Quality Directive. Cutting subventions to first generation biofuels will represent the main support to the waste based ones after 2020.
The EC has been very interested in the UCO to biodiesel chain development along the past years. In fact it has co-funded several projects centred on this topic (e.g. CIVITAS project). Some of these projects are recognized as best practices on EU level and demonstrate that the local production of UCO based biodiesel is a sustainable, feasible and profitable solution for the public transport sector.
Furthermore the coordination centre of policies and initiatives supporting the biofuels market is more and more shifting from the EU to the national level. As a consequence, national and local authorities will play a key role in the development of suitable regulations enhancing the UCO management, eliminating the existing contrasts with the Animal by Product regulation.
The 3rd article of the Alternative Fuels Directive gives an important role to advanced biofuels, basing the development of national targets and objectives on reliable and updated information, analysis and projections for the future. The national authorities of the EU28 MS would play a major role in distributing the incentives for advanced biofuel in a way that is convenient for the environment and for the local economies.
Voluntary certification schemes adapted to waste based biofuels have been able to tackle UCO thefts and fraud risks. At present, one the main obstacle to overcome is the scarce awareness of the UCO environmental, economic and social impacts. Unfortunately the greatest part of EU citizens and policy makers is not yet aware of the relevant benefits of the UCO to biodiesel chain implementation due to scarce visibility and poor presence in the public debate. In this sense, supporting UCO requires a big promotion and raising awareness effort. A further obstacle is the lack for reliable data and statistics on UCO.
Please click on the links below to view the presentations in pdf format
We thank very much all the speakers and participants for a highly productive afternoon of discussion and networking.
More information on RecOil project available on the project website: http://www.recoilproject.eu/index.php/en/
RecOil Video: https://vimeo.com/96882423