The future is today and our flights are more and more bio-based. A Hainan Airlines Boeing 737-800 completed yesterday China’s first passenger flight with sustainable biofuel made by Sinopec from waste cooking oil collected from restaurants in China.
Both of the aircraft’s CFM International CFM56-7B engines were powered by a fuel blend of approximately 50% aviation biofuel mixed with conventional petroleum jet fuel.
Pu Ming, VP- Hainan Airlines and pilot of the biofuel flight, said, “As a fast-growing domestic and international carrier, Hainan Airlines is demonstrating our environmental commitment by showing that aviation biofuel can play a safe and effective role in China’s air transport system.”
Boeing’s Current Market Outlook has forecast that China will require 6,020 new aircraft by 2033 to meet fast-growing passenger demand for domestic and international air travel.
Boeing said it collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders in China to develop a new sustainable aviation biofuel industry. In 2011, Air China conducted China’s first aviation biofuel test flight in a Boeing 747-400 using China-grown, jatropha-based biofuel. China Eastern Airlines conducted an Airbus A320 biofuel test flight using so called “gutter oil” in April 2013.
Boeing said it also partners with the Commercial Aviation Corp. of China (COMAC) and several research institutions, including Chinese Academy of Science’s Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), on aviation biofuel development.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 