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Airplanes Are Now Powered by Cooking Oil

Eating your leftovers.
Eating your leftovers. Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images

Wasted cooking oil from Louisiana restaurants is being repurposed to fuel airplanes, but fear not — it doesn’t smell. Dutch airline KLM took the leftovers from Cajun catfish dishes, trucked them to JFK, and then successfully flew 25 planes fueled by cooking oil on round-trip flights between New York and Amsterdam. Cooking oil can reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 percent, and this is the first time it’s being used regularly on longer trans-Atlantic flights. According to the experts, “It’s indistinguishable on a molecular level” from a jet fuel, and the only real downside of this sustainable biofuel is that it’s super expensive. [Time]

Airplanes Are Now Powered by Cooking Oil