On October 28, a Boeing 747 of Air China, using biofuels developed and produced by CNPC, landed at Beijing Capital International Airport after an hour’s trial flight. During the flight, a number of technical specifications including height and speed were tested and verified meeting the prescribed standards. The successful trial flight fueled by biofuels for the first time on an airliner in China indicates that CNPC has mastered the technology to provide aviation biofuels.

The fuel used in the flight is blended by conventional aviation kerosene and aviation biofuels with a 1:1 ratio. The latter is made from jatropha fruits at CNPC’s biofuel raw material base.

CNPC signed a cooperation agreement with the State Forestry Administration in 2007 to grow jatropha trees on the wasteland in Sichuan and Yunan, and has now cultivated jatropha forests of 1.2 million mu (800km2). A plant capable of producing 60,000 tons of aviation biofuels per year is planned to be built by 2014.