Plane Fueled By Cooking Oil Successfully Flies from China to US

By Justine Lopez

On November 21, a plane fueled partially by cooking oil successfully carried 186 passengers from Beijing to Chicago, China Daily reports. Hainan Airlines Flight 497 was the first ever flight from China to the US to use this type of mixed fuel. The mixture was 15 percent cooking waste and 85 percent regular jet fuel.

The fuel was created using leftover cooking oil gathered from restaurant kitchens. The recycled fuel was then produced at Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company, a subsidiary of oil company Sinopec, in Ningbo.

The special fuel was used in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which traveled over 11,000 kilometers to make the journey. The benefit of this kind of fuel is that it burns more cleanly than regular jet fuel and produces less carbon dioxide. The use of used kitchen oil also helps to reduce waste.

After the success of the flight, Sinopec hopes to use cooking waste to power more planes in the future. According to a spokesperson, Sinopec can gather 100,000 metric tons of used cooking oil from restaurants every year, Quartz reports.

In March 2015, Hainan Airlines successfully flew a Boeing 737 from Shanghai to Beijing using a similar blend of cooking oil fuel. Perhaps we'll see more Hainan Airlines flights powered by cooking oil in the near future.

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