SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s Sinopec Corp produced its first aviation fuel from used cooking oil at an industrial-scale facility in east China, the state refining giant said on Tuesday.
The biojet facility, built in Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co and able to process 100,000 tonnes of used cooking oil or “gut oil” each year, paves the way for Sinopec to start commercial manufacturing of the biofuel.
Biojet fuel cuts the emission of carbon dioxide by more than half over the whole life cycle, Sinopec added.
Sinopec began developing the fuel since 2009 and in 2014 won the country’s first airworthiness certificate for the fuel.
The International Energy Agency predicted in late 2021 that global biojet demand could range between 2 to 6 billion litres by 2026, up from around 0.1 billion litres.
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu, Editing by Louise Heavens)
