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

The UK's "illogical" 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 reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food rates.

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil was worse for the than fossil fuels.

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to make up 5% of the UK's transportation fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the gas and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research brought out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK motorists will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the greater 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 vehicle drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

"It is hard to find any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

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

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the cost for it has risen quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that sell it at earnings,"

"It is insane however the rewards exist."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more environment problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had actually lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the very first place," said Rob Bailey.

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

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, stated it knew the issues triggered by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles on the planet is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

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