OK, I couldn’t resist that headline… or this story. It seems that North Carolina State University engineers have developed technology that can turn almost any oil… from hog lard to vegetable oil… into jet fuel.

According to an NC State news release, the technology is called Centia… a derivative of the Latin “crudus potentia,” or “green power”:

Dr. William Roberts, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the Applied Energy Research Laboratory at NC State, says that besides being “100 percent green,” the new technology has some key advantages.

“We can take virtually any lipid-based feedstock, or raw material with a fat source – including what is perceived as low-quality feedstock like cooking grease – and turn it into virtually any fuel,” Roberts says. “Using low-quality feedstock is typically 30 percent less costly than using corn or canola oils to make fuel.”

And it burns cleaner… good for the environment. Plus, NC State is using the glycerol produced from the biodiesel production to power the process. Since it has to work at high altitudes at temperatures as low as -70 degrees, the fuel works at extremely low temperatures.

Guess it’s appropriate that flying pig technology is being developed by a Wolf Pack!