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

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

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

The author says that biodiesel made from grease was worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel .

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 percentage of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

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

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

"It produces 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 earnings,"

"It is crazy but the rewards are there."

There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is developing more climate issues than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the bigger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had actually resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect results, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from utilizing diesel in the first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely irrational strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, said it understood the issues caused by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

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

"It has brought great deals of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel