Sinopec, planning commercial production of aviation biofuels, seeks approval from CAAC

The application of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) to produce aviation biofuel commercially is being deliberated upon by China’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The Dow Jones Business News reported that according to a senior government official, Beijing wants a third of the fuel used by its expanding airline fleet to come from plants. Three-quarters of the conventional aviation fuel supply in China is produced by Sinopec. The country currently consumes 20 metric tons of jet fuel a year, but according to CAAC Deputy Director Li Jian, it could double to 40 million metric tons a year by 2020. CAAC wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency by 2020. The country already has the technology to produce aviation biofuel, but it needs to reduce production costs so that the environment-friendly aviation fuel can be sold commercially. Sinopec’s rival, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), supplied the 15 tons of biofuel used by Air China Ltd. in a test flight it conducted last October. PetroChina Co., a unit of CNPC, is planning to build a refinery that will produce 60,000 tons of biofuel made from jatropha by 2014. (February 29, 2012)