The Hainan Airlines Boeing 737 which landed in Beijing on Saturday from Shanghai became the first commercial flight in China powered by biofuel.

The biofuel was developed by China Petrochemical Corp, best known as Sinopec Group. It is 50-50 mixture of traditional petroleum and biofuel from waste cooking oil, often called "gutter oil".

Pu Ming, vice-president of Hainan Airlines, captained the flight. He said biofuel-powered air flight is just as stable as using traditional aviation fuel, but is more energy efficient and less polluting.