Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'

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

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

The author says that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the climate 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 needed fuel providers to include a growing percentage of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level means that UK motorists will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling up more often as biofuels have a lower energy material.

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

"It is tough to discover any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really expensive way to lower carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting effects in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It creates a financial reward to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then offer it at profit,"

"It is insane but the incentives are there."

There are also frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more environment issues than it solves. 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, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect effects, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the very first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking vehicle drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely irrational strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it understood the problems triggered by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

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

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