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

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

A report by Chatham House, external says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food costs.

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 transport fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the petrol 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 brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK motorists will need to pay an extra ₤ 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 say that if the UK is to satisfy its commitments to EU energy targets the expense to motorists is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

"It is difficult 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 costly way to decrease carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having hugely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered as one of the most kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has risen quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It develops a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at earnings,"

"It is crazy however the rewards exist."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more environment problems than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into account these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from utilizing diesel in the first place," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking vehicle drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable method."

Biofuel benefits

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

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

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