China’s aviation starts to go green, although fuels may not become commercially used until 2020.
China Eastern Airlines, in conjunction with Sinopec, has completed its first test flight using fuel derived from palm oil. According to Sinpoec spokesman, Huang Zhongwen, the company is also working on fuels made from waste cooking oil, although these were were not used on the test flight.
Captain Liu Zhimin, who piloted the aircraft for 85 minutes, claimed there was no difference between the biofuel and regular aviation fuel when performing difficult manoeuvres at high altitude or during takeoff.
This is not the first Chinese test of bio-aviation fuel. In 2011, Air China successfully flew a Boeing 747 using bio-fuel and further tests of different fuels are likely over the coming months and years.
While biofuel for aviation use is a clear scientific breakthrough, Zhao Xuebing, a lecturer specialising in bio-energy research at Tsinghua University, does not see “biofuel being used widely in commercial flights in the next decade”, due to high production costs. China Aviation Oil, Asia’s top jet fuel buyer, predicts that 30% of China’s aviation fuel consumption will be met by biofuel by 2020.