While China reaches ever further overseas to secure energy supplies, some Chinese businesses at home are coming up with increasingly creative ways of tapping into new sources of fuel.
Take the story of one small company in Fujian province that has captured a local niche market: collecting waste oil from restaurants and factories and turning it into biodiesel and chemicals that can be sold at a handsome profit.
The five-year-old biodiesel business of China Clean Energy has got a big boost from the government’s vows to cut carbon emissions. According to William Chen, its chief financial officer, the New York-listed company has seen its revenues quadruple this year compared with 2009.