Executive Summary
This report evaluates the sustainability of various used for biofuel production. The assessment covers ten different feedstocks, including Used Cooking Oil (UCO), Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) oil, Spent Bleach Earth (SBE) oil, soap stock acid oils, animal fats, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) bottoms, brown grease, sewage, and food waste. The key aspects analysed for each feedstock include overall sustainability concerns, plausible global volumes, competing industries, potential risks of indirect land use change (iLUC), geographical dependencies, and potential mitigating actions.
The key findings are:
- Used Cooking Oil (UCO): Highly constrained with high demand and limited supply, leading to potential fraud and iLUC risks. Estimated annual global potential is 10 million tonnes.
- Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Oil: Highly constrained supply. Estimated annual global potential is 0.84 million tonnes.
- Spent Bleach Earth (SBE) Oil: Currently mainly landfilled, which leave room for increasing its use for biofuel, i.e. in the shorter term until fully utilised, it can be used with low iLUC risk. But given the very low potential, it is estimated that it will be fully utilised within very short time (few years). Therefore, it is important to ensure that an additional demand for SBE is associated with a corresponding additional recovery/collection of SBE. Estimated annual global potential is 0.037 million tonnes from non-palm vegetable oils and 0.013 million tonnes from palm oil.
- Soap Stock Acid Oils: Constrained with high demand, leading to potential high iLUC risks. Estimated annual global potential is 1.2 million tonnes.
- Animal Fats: Constrained with high demand, leading to potential iLUC risks. Estimated annual global potential is 2.8 million tonnes.
- Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) Bottoms: Constrained with high demand, leading to potential iLUC risks. Estimated annual global potential is 0.3 million tonnes.
- Brown Grease: Constrained with high demand, leading to potential iLUC risks. Estimated annual global potential is 2.0 million tonnes.
- Sewage: Oil and fat from sewage are currently mainly disposed of as waste, which leave room for increasing its use for biofuel, i.e. in the shorter term until fully utilised, it can be used with low iLUC risk. However, it is important to ensure that an additional demand for sewage oil and fat is associated with a corresponding additional recovery/collection. Estimated global potential is 5.4 million tonnes from sewage sludge and 13 million tonnes from sewage.
- Food Waste: Currently mainly disposed of as waste, which leave room for increasing its use for biofuel, i.e. in the shorter term until fully utilised, it can be used with low iLUC risk. However, it is important to ensure that an additional demand for oil from food waste is associated with a corresponding additional recovery/collection. Estimated global potential is 16.5 million tonnes of lipids.
