Qantas flight fuelled by cooking oil

I was talking to a co-worker the other day and she told me that Qantas had recently powered one of their flights using cooking oil. I was surprised as I had not read about this aviation feat. So when I  returned home I decided to Google it to discover more. It turns out that Qantas, with financial assistance from the Australian government, is researching alternative fuel sources for the aviation industry, and that they had recently trialled a one off flight between Sydney and Adelaide powered by used cooking oil. 

Apparently the cost of the oil is four times that of conventional fuel, because the used cooking oil has to be refined in order to make it a viable fuel source. Since the United States of America is the only country where a refinery with that capability is located, the refined oil had to be imported, which is a major reason why the oil is so expensive. However the trial flight was run to test the fuel in use and the trail was not expected to be cost effective. The pilot reported that the used cooking oil performed relatively the same as normal jet fuel, with the exception that it lasted longer than normal jet fuel. It is hoped that this trial will support the case that a refinery capable of producing this used cooking oil product, to be used as jet fuel, should be built in Australia. This would reduce the cost of this alternative fuel source and hopefully bring us closer to making flights more sustainable than they are currently.

This new revelation has given me a rare glimpse of the future, in order for Qantas to source the amount of used cooking oil it requires to fly it's planes, I think it will have to start feeding passengers deep fried foods on all it's flights. I can imagine their menu's now, deep fried mars bars, snickers, pizzas and ice creams would feature and I think it would get to the stage where Jetstar would have to start giving people free deep fried food just to use enough cooking oil to justify the flight. So if this occurs we are in for a future where will be able to fly the globe with less damage to the environment, but we will all have to get plenty of exercise at our destinations in order to justify the deep fried feasts on board our flights!