Pigs do fly: the rise of animal fats in European transport
Growing demand for animal fats biofuels to power Europe’s transport system raises concerns over climate impacts and potential fraud
Related Documents
Rendered animal fats are a by-product of industrial meat production and have a number of surprising and less surprising uses. Most notably animal fats have been used so far in pet food and in the oleochemicals (e.g. soap, cosmetics) industries. Less well known, however, is their use as transport fuels, currently mostly in cars and trucks. Major airlines have recently struck big deals with oil suppliers for what are termed ‘sustainable aviation fuels’ (SAF). Even if the detail of the exact feedstocks used in SAFs is mostly vague, they often include animal fats.
As the study carried out by Cerulogy on behalf of T&E shows, there is already significant pressure on supplies of animal fat as its use in biodiesel has grown fortyfold since 2006.
Related Articles
View AllFrom Farm to Fuel: inside Eni’s African biofuels gamble
An in-depth look behind the scenes of Eni's new green strategy: developing new agricultural production channels from scratch in six African countries ...
Uncovered: Italian oil giant’s African biofuels gamble falls short
Investigation into Eni’s projects in Kenya and the Republic of the Congo shows company is failing to produce ‘miracle’ drought-resistant biofuels crops at scale
Civil society groups call for end to soy biofuels
30 non-profit organisations, including T&E, WWF, Oxfam and Birdlife, call on the European Commission to phase out support for deforestation-driving soy biofuels