China’s largest private airline makes first biofuel flight

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

SHANGHAI, China – China’s largest private carrier Hainan Airlines has completed the country’s first flight powered by fuel made from waste cooking oil.

SHANGHAI, China – China’s largest private carrier Hainan Airlines has completed the country’s first flight powered by fuel made from waste cooking oil.

A Boeing 737 plane was used for the purpose and it took off from Shanghai on Saturday with 100 passengers aboard and arrived in Beijing the same day.

Cooking oil collected from restaurants was used by top Chinese oil refiner Sinopec to manufacture the biofuel, local media reported on Monday.

Hainan Airlines vice president Pu Ming personally piloted the flight which used 50-50 mix of biofuel and conventional jet fuel.
With this move, Hainan Airlines pulled a surprise on Hong Kong-based airlines Dragonair which had announced a few days ago its intention to conduct China’s first ever commercial flight using recycled oil on that same day.

However, Dragonair was eventually forced to postpone the event due to problems with legal permits.

The biofuel used in the Hainan Airline flight emits 50 to 80 per cent less carbon dioxide than traditional fuels and is expected to significantly reduce air traffic pollution although its use is still limited due to its high cost.

In 2011, German carrier Lufthansa became the first airlines to carry out a biofuel-powered passenger flight.

In the same year, China started conducting trials of this new technology.

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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