{"id":115553,"date":"2022-09-16T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=115553"},"modified":"2022-09-13T13:12:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T11:12:24","slug":"animal-fats-dilemma-how-to-ensure-a-balanced-use-of-a-precious-commodity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/animal-fats-dilemma-how-to-ensure-a-balanced-use-of-a-precious-commodity\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal fats dilemma: How to ensure a balanced use of a precious commodity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The EU is at the crossroads of decarbonising its transport sector. Sustainable biofuels are part of the solution, but negative spill-over effects must be urgently addressed. The \u201cfood vs fuel\u201d dilemma is well known for oilseed crops, but less known for rendered animal fats category 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Anna Hoychuk \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Their increased use in biofuels will deal a blow to EU animal feed, pet food and oleochemical producers undermining them and their contribution to the bioeconomy. Ensuring that only the animal fats that are not suitable for food, feed and oleochemicals are eligible for biofuel use is justified both environmentally and economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hidden challenge for pet food, animal feed and oleochemicals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Europe, animal fats are classified into three categories. Categories 1 and 2 fats are not fit for human food, oleochemicals or animal feed due to the high risk of contamination. Thus, they are used for biofuels. Animal fats, known as animal fats category 3 are high-quality fats derived from animal by-products of meat production, which are neither waste nor part of our diet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may not have heard of animal fats category 3, but they are a vital ingredient in animal feed and pet food. They are also a key feedstock for oleochemicals \u2013 used to make products, including  detergents, soaps, cosmetics and paints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 APAG & FEDIAF<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despite not being listed in Annex IX Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the demand for animal fats category 3 for biofuel production has grown by 88% between 2018 and 2020. The RED incentivises new waste feedstocks for biofuel production, listing Categories 1 and 2 in Annex IX as advanced biofuel feedstocks. Nonetheless, all categories of animal fats are sought after by the biofuel industry because of their high energy density, especially for road transport and aviation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing revision of transport legislation foresees the inclusion of Category 3 in the biofuels targets to decarbonise the transport sector, boosting demand even further. Moreover, as the biofuels producers find it increasingly difficult to secure sustainably-grown crop-based feedstocks such as palm oil and soybean, their attention is inevitably increasingly turning to other feedstocks, such as animal fats category 3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the overall supply of these fats is in decline due to reduced meat consumption and animal diseases, fewer animal fats are available for pet food, animal feed and oleochemistry. These industries have been under increasing pressure to maintain a secure supply of European-sourced fats over the past years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incentivising the use of category 3 in biofuels will only increase competition among industries for this scarce resource. Their supply is scarce, limited to Europe, and they are an essential ingredient for pet food, animal feed and oleochemistry products. While these industries work continuously to find long-term, sustainable alternatives to animal fat, the current distortion of  the market could easily lead to product shortages and decline in the oleochemical industry in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieving EU decarbonisation goals while safeguarding food, feed and oleochemicals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How do we solve the animal fat category 3 availability crisis? First of all, we need to apply the \u201cfood before fuel\u201d principle here as we do with food and feed crops. Secondly, we must carefully consider the market dynamics and historical uses, such as oleochemicals, to ensure one sector\u2019s needs do not lead to adverse spill-over effects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the biofuels sector can thrive on other types of feedstock, the oleochemical, pet food and animal feed industries cannot function sustainably without access to sufficient quantities of animal fats category 3. Even without new incentives, demand from biofuel producers for category 3 is projected to increase significantly as the industry expands its Hydro Treated Vegetable Oil (HVO) capacities which is expected to double by 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, as electrification takes hold in the road transport sector, biofuel demand is growing more rapidly in the aviation and maritime transport sectors. Current discussions on the definition of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) indicate that animal fats category 3 could be allowed transitionally. Even in a limited capacity, this decision would be detrimental to the European pet food, animal feed and oleochemical industries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the aviation and sustainable maritime fuels market scales up, it is paramount to set the right framework from the beginning; one which excludes the possibility of meeting sustainable fuels quotas using category 3. The impact of this on the transport sector would be minimal, whereas the impact of allowing these fats for biofuel use would be massive for the industries that currently rely on them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Commission understands this. In its initial proposal it defined SAF as those made from \u201creal wastes\u201d, i.e. materials which have no other uses, fulfil the sustainability criteria, waste hierarchy and cascading use principle. By following this definition and prioritising animal fat categories depending on their use, pet food, animal feed and oleochemical European industries would be safeguarded, established sectors of the EU bioeconomy would be protected all. At the same time, the EU continues its successful journey of decarbonising the transport sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the discussions on the three files: the Renewable Energy Directive, the ReFuelEU Aviation Initiative and the Fuel EU Maritime,  the co-legislators considered amendments are mainly ignoring these realities. The co-legislators must reject these amendments and restrict the use of animal fats for biofuels to those that are waste and cannot be used in the human or animal food chain or the oleochemical industry, i.e. Categories 1 and 2 only. And it is an economic sustainability imperative, as it would be counterproductive to deliberately drive up the costs of pet food, animal feed and oleochemical products. Especially when the skyrocketing costs are already taking their toll on consumers and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

APAG<\/strong>, a Sector Group of Cefic, represents 29 European producers of Oleochemicals,  (Fatty Acids, Glycerine, Alcohols, Metallic Soaps and Fatty Esters). Oleochemicals are bio-based chemicals derived from vegetable oils and animal fats used as raw materials\/intermediates   in a variety of products, such as detergents, soaps, lubricants, paints, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals but also as processing aids and additives for plastics, rubber, textiles, food, nutrition and many others. They are essential substances for almost any advanced product in today’s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FEDIAF<\/strong>, the European Pet Food Industry Association represents pet food manufacturers across Europe (15 National Associations and 5 direct companies from a total of 18 countries), who provide pets with nutritious and balanced pet food every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU is at the crossroads of decarbonising its transport sector. Sustainable biofuels are part of the solution, but negative spill-over effects must be urgently addressed. The \u201cfood vs fuel\u201d dilemma is well known for oilseed crops, but less known for rendered animal fats category 3. Their increased use in biofuels will deal a blow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Animal fats, known as animal fats category 3 are high-quality fats derived from animal by-products of meat production, which are neither waste nor part of our diet","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5714,20988],"supplier":[4027,20989],"class_list":["post-115553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biofuels","tag-fats","supplier-european-chemical-industry-council-cefic","supplier-europeanpetfood-industry-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115553"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=115553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}