Chinese aircraft flies to the US from China using recycled cooking oil

The blend of aviation fuel is made up of 15% waste cooking oil and 85% normal jet fuel.

Kayla Wong | November 24, 2017, 05:35 PM

After reading this article, you will probably not look at the leftover oil in your wok the same way again.

Thanks to Chinese technology, it is now capable of being recycled into biofuel for the aviation industry.

China's first cross-ocean biofuel flight

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, a Hainan Airlines Boeing 787 carrying 186 passengers and 15 cabin crews completed the first China-US international flight using cooking oil-blended aviation fuel this week.

The flight took off from Beijing and landed in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Tuesday (Nov. 21).

The blend is made up of 15% waste cooking fuel and 85% normal jet fuel. It is produced by Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company.

The president of Hainan Airlines said that the plane had ran smoothly, and that the overall performance was stable.

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Next challenge is to develop cost-effective biofuel

Two years ago,  the airline had flown 156 passengers from Shanghai to Beijing on a 50-50 blend of used cooking oil and normal jet fuel, the country's first. Now, the same carrier, which is already China’s biggest private airline by both market size and fleet size, has achieved another milestone by flying passengers much further using the same type of fuel.

Airlines account for 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that is expected to rise in the coming years.

Several airlines such as United and Cathay Pacific are already operating commercial flights using biofuels or are planning to do so soon.

Sustainably produced biofuel which can be made from algae and plants besides waste oil, can reduce carbon emissions by 50 to 80% compared to petroleum through its life cycle.

According to another Chinese state media China Global Television Network (CGTN), the challenge for the airline next is to develop a sustainable, cost-effective biofuel suitable for large-scale utilisation.

A senior engineer at the refinery told Xinhua that though the facility can handle 100,000 tonnes of cooking oil every year,  one of the problems currently is the supply of waste oil which is not yet stable and consistent.

Possible solution to China's other problems

Besides its potential impact on the entire airline industry, such 'waste cooking oil' powered aircrafts also offer an elegant solution to two of China's most damaging problems — its vast consumption of fossil fuels and the tendency of restaurants to recycle cooking oil dredged from the drains. 

Sewage from gutters outside restaurants are often scooped up by enterprising collectors, who then sell the oil for reuse, a practice that poses a major health risk.

Cover image via Youtube.

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