Fat for fuel

Animal fats and meat and bone meal are the by-products of the meat and dairy industry processed by the rendering sector Photo: Adobe Stock

Rendered animal fats are increasingly utilised in biofuels production. With the EU proposing changes to its renewable energy targets and feedstocks, what are the implications for the rendering industry? Serena Lim

The relaxation in feeding meat and bone meal to pigs and chickens in the EU, a growing trend in vegan and vegetarian diets, rising demand for animal fat feedstocks from the biofuels industry, and the growth of the organic fertiliser market are all trends that will impact the rendering industry, the European Fat Processors and Renderers Association (EFPRA) 2022 Congress heard in May.

EU advanced biofuels feedstocks, Annex IX

The EU’s RED II Annex IX lists feedstocks for advanced biofuels in two parts:

Part A

• Algae if cultivated on land in ponds or photobioreactors • Biomass fraction of mixed municipal waste • Biowaste from private households subject to separate collection • Biomass fraction of industrial waste not fit for use in the food or feed chain • Straw • Animal manure and sewage sludge • Palm oil mill effluent and empty palm fruit bunches • Tall oil pitch • Crude glycerine • Bagasse • Grape marcs and wine lees • Nut shells • Husks • Cobs cleaned of kernels of corn • Biomass fraction of wastes and residues from forestry and forest-based industries • Other non-food cellulosic material • Other ligno-cellulosic material except saw logs and veneer logs

Part B

• Used cooking oil (UCO) • Category 1 and 2 animal fats

Rendering is a global business and the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine had demonstrated the widespread impact of a disrupted global supply chain, EFPRA president Sjors Beerendonk told the 2526 May conference in Portugal.

Production and processing of grains and oilseeds – important sources of food and animal feed – had been disrupted due to the Ukraine conflict.

“This only emphasises the need for the optimum use of proteins and minerals,” Beerendonk said.

Due to the sharp rise in oil and gas prices, there was a squeeze on mineral fertilisers made from natural gas, which presented an opportunity for organic fertilisers made from rendered products, Beerendonk added.

The move away from mineral fertilisers had already started as a result of the EU Green Deal Farm to Fork strategy, which sets a target to have at least 25% of the bloc’s agricultural land under organic farming by 2030.

Within the EU, animal fats had increasingly been used to make biofuels since 2002. “This outlet has become the single biggest market for rendered animal fats, especially Category 1 fats u

EU animal by-product categories 1, 2 & 3

Animal by-products (ABPs) are animal carcasses, parts of animals or other materials which come from animals. Rendered animal fats are obtained by rendering animal remains after the initial removal of meat, hides and food grade fats. In the EU, ABPs are divided into three categories, based on the risks they pose. Category 1 materials have the highest risk of spreading diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and include: • Carcasses and all body parts of animals suspected of being infected with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) • Carcasses of wild animals suspected of being infected with a disease that humans or animals could contract • Carcasses of animals used in experiments • Parts of animals that are contaminated due to illegal treatments • Catering waste from international transport • Carcasses and body parts from zoo and circus animals or pets • Specified risk material (body parts that pose a particular disease risk, eg cows’ spinal cords) Category 2 materials are classed as high risk and include: • Animals rejected from abattoirs due to having infectious diseases • Carcasses containing residues from authorised treatments • Unhatched poultry that has died in its shell • Carcasses of animals killed for disease control purposes • Carcasses of dead livestock • Manure • Digestive tract content Category 3 materials are classed as low risk and include: • Carcasses or body parts passed fit for humans to eat, at a slaughterhouse • Products or foods of animal origin originally meant for human consumption but withdrawn for commercial reasons, not because it is unfit to eat • Domestic catering waste • Shells from shellfish with soft tissue • Eggs, egg by-products, hatchery by-products and eggshells • Aquatic animals, aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates • Hides and skins from slaughterhouses • Animal hides, skins, hooves, feathers, wool, horns, and hair that had no signs of infectious disease at death • Processed animal proteins (PAP) u (see EU animal by-product categories, right),” Beerendonk told the conference.

Source: LMC Interantionial

Animal fats and UCO for biofuels

Rohaise Low, biofuels senior economist of LMC International, UK, said biofuels were a key end use of animal fats.

Vegetable oil prices had reached historic highs earlier this year due to the invasion of Ukraine restricting supplies of sunflower oil from the Black Sea region, labour shortages in Malaysia affecting palm oil supply, droughts in Canada affecting the canola harvest, and restrictions on Indonesian vegetable oil exports, which had impacted other oils including used cooking oil (UCO).

Because all oils and fats traded within a price band, high vegetable oil prices meant high prices for UCO and category 3 animal fats, which had been a good thing for the rendering industry, she said.

“However, we are not going to see high prices forever.”

Global biodiesel demand had also risen strongly over recent years thanks to increasing mandates and the opening of new renewable diesel capacity.

Low said some governments had been pulling back on their blending mandates due to high feedstock prices, such as Brazil, Argentina and some European countries, but not the major EU nations which supported biofuels, such as Germany, France and Scandinavian member states.

Low said the EU was shifting away from volumetric policies (blending mandates) towards greenhouse gas (GHG) emission polices and reducing carbon emissions, such as in California and Canada.

“The focus is on lower carbon fuels and waste [feedstocks].”

She said traditional biofuels such as ethanol and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) could only be blended up to a certain amount in petrol and diesel, respectively. Renewable diesel or hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) used the same feedstocks (vegetable or waste oils and fats) but had a different production process.

“HVO plants tend to be large, with pre-treatment facilities attached – and can process lower quality animal fats and high free fatty acid (FFA) oils, so there is an opportunity to sell to them, rather than to traditional FAME plants.”

“A newer trend which is expected to emerge strongly in the next few years is for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF),” Low added. “The aviation industry is difficult to decarbonise and, currently, the most achievable way to low emissions is to use SAF made from oils and fats via HVO technology.” u

Figure 2: Use of EU Category 1 and 2 products

Figure 3: EU category 1, 2 & 3 biodiesel

Source: Dirk Dobbelaere, EFPRA Total: 2.4M tonnes

Figure 4: Production of Category 3 fat

u

Source: Dirk Dobbelaere, EFPRA

Source: Dirk Dobbelaere, EFPRA

Proposed changes to RED II

The EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) adopted for the 20212030 period sets an overall binding renewable energy target of at least 32% by 2030, with a 14% target for the transport sector.

Within the 14% transport sector target, food-based biofuels are capped at 7%. For advanced biofuels, RED II introduces two different targets for feedstocks – listed as Part A and B in Annex IX (see ‘EU advanced biofuels feedstocks, Annex IX, p18)

Feedstocks listed in Part A must be supplied at a minimum of 0.2% of transport energy in 2022, 1% in 2025, and at least 3.5% by 2030. Biofuels produced from feedstocks listed in Part B (used cooking oil and category 1 and 2 animal fats) will be capped at 1.7% in 2030. Both Part A and B feedstocks can be double-counted (ie, they can be counted twice when measuring progress towards the renewable energy targets).

RED II will also phase out palm oil as a feedstock by 2030. Low said proposed changes to RED II included: • A change in the transport target to a

GHG reduction target, reaching a 13% reduction by 2030. • Double-counting and multiples are removed in almost all circumstances with the exception of the aviation and maritime sectors, where advanced alternative fuels can be counted 1.2 times to provide a small incentive. • Sectors not capped or under specific sub-targets are renewable electricity and biofuels made from non-crops and non-Annex IX feedstocks, including category 3 animal fats. • The sub-target for advanced biofuels

will rise to 2.2% by 2030 (a physical target). • A hard cap of 1.7% on biofuels made from widely-used wastes including animal fat-based biodiesel. • The sub-target for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) rising to 2.6% by 2030. • A plan to establish better administration – a database to trace liquid and gaseous renewable fuels. In addition, a comprehensive system of guarantees of origin to avoid doublecounting so energy use is accounted to the sector where it is consumed. • Increasing the limit of FAME blending in diesel to 10% from 7%. biodiesel industry in 2021, of which Category 3 took an increasing share (see Figure 3, previous page).

Total production of Category 3 fats was 2.4M tonnes in 2021, which included multi-species animal fats, bone fats, poultry fats, pig skin fats, pig fats, tallow and lard (see Figure 4, previous page).

The largest share (just over 800,000 tonnes) of edible and Category 3 fats went to the biodiesel sector in 2021 (see Figure 5, previous page).

Dobbelaere said large markets for food and feed grade fats were the feed, oleochemical and biodiesel sectors. Biodiesel use increased and was the biggest market (up 5% to a 34% market share in 2021). Oleochemistry use fell by 13% and feed use fell by 1%.

A medium markets for food and feed grade fats was the pet food sector, which took 15% less food and feed grade fats in 2021 compared with the previous year.

Small markets for food and feed grade fats were the food, aquaculture and fur industries. Food use increased by 2%, aquaculture fell by 49% and fur by 38%.●

Serena Lim is the editor of OFI

Low explained the implications of the proposals. Assuming an average GHG saving of 80% for waste-based/advanced biofuels and RFNBO, and 60% for cropbased biofuels, the limits and targets would result in GHG savings of 9.4% by 2030.

This would require a growing volume of ‘other’ renewable fuels (by 3.6% in 2030.) (see Figure 1, p20). The ‘other’ proportion would also rise due to many countries setting the crop-based biofuel limit below the 7% maximum.

“The key points for animal fat are that category 1 and 2 animals fats are considered to have zero emissions up to the process of their collection.

“Category 3 animal fats are left in a similar position as today – they have no benefit over crop-based biofuels in terms of emissions/double-counting but they are outside the established waste and crop caps and can therefore be used to supply the ‘other’ portion of the mandate.”

The biofuel industry had hoped that Annex IX might include Category 3 animal fats but Low said this was unlikely.

“Category 3 animal fats are not expected to be approved as a waste due to concerns over land use and market distortion, and strong lobbying from the oleochemical sector [which can use it as a feedstock]”.

EU rendering industry

EFPRA secretary general Dirk Dobbelaere told the conference that the processing of animal by-products in the EU had remained stable in 2021.

Just under 1M tonnes of Category 1 and 2 rendered products were combusted in 2021, while 542,000 tonnes was used in the biodiesel industry (see Figure 2, previous page).

A total of 1.36M tonnes of Category 1, 2 and 3 products was used in the