What’s really in your tank? Ireland to raise concerns about fraudulent biofuel with EU ministers [Video]

THE GOVERNMENT WILL raise fears that fraudulent imported biofuel could be passed off as sustainable fuel at a meeting of EU energy ministers next week.

Hundreds of millions of litres of biofuel are used in Ireland but there is a risk that some may not be what is claimed.

As reported by The Journal last month, a 24% increase in biofuel use in Ireland last year was largely met with an additional 54 million litres of fuel made from palm oil mill effluent (POME) – a waste product of palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia. This represented a 28-fold increase in POME use in Irish transport.

There are indications the amount of POME-derived biofuel sold into Europe last year may have exceeded the amount that could reasonably be expected to have been produced – raising fears that virgin palm oil may have been passed off as more sustainable, waste-based fuel.

Now Minister for Transport and …