Attempts to cut the red tape governing recycled waste
vegetable oil have been broadly welcomed by Europe's largest environmental
technology trade association as a "positive step".However, the Environmental
Industries Commission - which represents 320 environmental technology and
service bodies - has criticized some elements of the biodiesel Quality Protocol
being developed by the Environment Agency and WRAP. In particular, it is warning that a company recycling oil into
biodiesel under the Protocol could not use the resulting fuel on its own site.
Under
the quality protocol, the EA sets out criteria for when waste vegetable oil
ceases to be a "waste" in the eyes of the law, and becomes the
product biodiesel. The protocol is based on the recovered oil conforming to the
British standard BS:EN 14214 or the alternative, BS: EN 14078.Accordingly, biodiesel derived from waste
vegetable oil would have to be produced via a "chemical process" and
used for combustion in "automotive engines".
The
EIC - whose members include oil-recycling companies such as D1 oils and Eco-oil
Ltd - claimed in its response to the 12-week consultation to the protocol that
the protocol as it stands could restrict the use of biodiesel as a product to
off-site use.
EIC
director Merlin Hyman said, "The Protocol states that waste vegetable oil
(WVO) derived biodiesel ceases to be a waste 'when it has been dispatched to the
customer. This on one hand is a positive step, but its use offsite as a diesel
fuel is not its only use. It can be used as fuel in the boilers or power
generators onsite.We do not believe
that its use should be restricted to offsite use. Also it would seem rather odd
to store it onsite as waste. WVO biodiesel should cease to be a waste once it
has met the requirements of BS: EN 14214.”
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