Flying the Greasy Skies: Dutch Airline Fuels Its Flights With Used Cooking Oil
Who would have thought that Louisiana and its colorful cuisine would be the source of the airline industry’s next biofuel? Oddly enough, used cooking oil that went into making catfish and cracklins in Louisiana restaurants is now being collected by one Dutch airline for the purpose of powering its transatlantic flights.
KLM initiated the project recently as an experiment to see if it could reduce its carbon footprint with a more eco-friendly fuel. For the next six months, its new jet fuel mixture—which is made of 25 percent of Louisiana’s used cooking oil and 75 percent traditional jet fuel—will be tested on a few dozen of the airline’s roundtrip flights between Amsterdam and New York City.
The BBC reports that KLM's biofuel can actually reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 percent.
While the effort to find less environmentally-detrimental means of air travel is always commendable, testing the efficacy of fuel while soaring high above the Atlantic Ocean seems a touch dicey. Nonetheless, so far it’s posed no problems—aside from the fact that the fuel smells exactly like fast food.
KLM executive Camiel Eurlings told the NY Post, “I was with the guy fueling the plane this morning and he said it smelled like fries.” Eurlings added that passengers inside the plane can’t smell the greasy mixture at all.
But aside from making the maintenance crew hungry for McDonald’s, the eco-friendlier fuel is reportedly indistinguishable from traditional jet fuel. Capt. Rick Shouten told the paper, “For the pilots...It’s as if you’re flying a normal aircraft.”
KLM is actually quite a pioneer in biofuel experimentation. It’s been offering biofueled flights within Europe since 2009, most notably on commuter trips between Amsterdam and Paris. But this latest experiment marks its first biofueled jaunt over the Atlantic.
What’s most impressive about KLM and their dedication to corporate responsibility is that so far, it’s not been financially beneficial for the company; biofuel runs about three times the price of regular jet fuel, mostly because it has to be refined and prepared especially for jet engine use.
But the airline isn’t bothered by that yet. It’s hoping that through regular use, the benefits of biofuel will become so obvious to consumers and federal agencies that subsidies and tax incentives will be offered, inciting a more widespread use of eco-friendly fuels within the air travel industry.
It's an especially noble cause considering that airline travel and the environment are often at odds with one another; the New York Times reports that the U.S. airline industry is responsible for about 3 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and that domestic aircraft emissions could rise by as much as 60 percent by 2025.
KLM may be a Dutch airline, but its commitment to alleviating the environmental impact of air travel will hopefully serve as a model for other airlines, most especially for those based in the U.S.
Would you fly across the ocean on a plane powered by used cooking oil? Let us know in the Comments.
Related Stories on TakePart:
• Invasive Weed: Biofuel Possibility or Harbinger of Our Doom?
• Used Coffee Grounds and Stale Muffins: The Source of Our Next Biofuel?
• New Solutions Target Food Waste Problem
A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer. In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com
