LONDON - The world's first commercial passenger flight powered by a fuel made from natural gas completed late on Monday a six-hour journey from London to Qatar, one of the biggest producers of natural gas.

"Today's flight opens the door to an alternative to oil-based aviation fuel," Malcolm Brinded, Royal Dutch Shell's executive director upstream international, said in a statement late on Monday.

"We are now well on the way to launching GTL on a world scale for the first time," Brinded said.

Shell developed and produced the 50-50 blend of synthetic Gas to Liquids (GTL) kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel used in Qatar Airways' Airbus A340-800 aircraft powered by a Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engine.

"This is a major breakthrough which brings us closer to a world where fuels made from feedstocks such as wood-chip waste and other biomass is available for commercial aviation," Rainer Ohler, a spokesman for Airbus, said.

"Airbus predicts that in 2030, up to 30 percent of jet fuel will be alternative."

The fuel burned with lower sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions, which should help improve local air quality at busy airports.

Qatar Airlines was a logical choice for the test, as Qatar is one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas.

Airlines are under pressure to reduce emissions.

The European Union has released a list of nearly 4,000 companies including commercial airlines, private jet operators and air forces around the globe that must reduce their emissions or face a European airport ban.

In response, the International Air Transport Association has pledged to cut air emissions in half by 2050.

The association, which represents 230 airlines comprising 93 percent of scheduled international air traffic, is also striving for a 1.5 percent average annual improvement in fuel efficiency through 2020.

Qatar will become the world's leading producer of GTL kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012. It is already the world's top exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Qatar Petroleum and Shell are building the Pearl GTL plant, which has an annual capacity of around one million tons -- enough to carry 250 passengers around the world 4,000 times when used in a 50 percent blend to make GTL jet fuel.

"Commercial aviation is one of the exciting new markets that this opens up, helping us maximize the value from our natural resources," said Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah.

Source: Reuters

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written by Fran Tracy, November 07, 2009

I did not see in the article if the co2 emmissions are lowered also. It did mentionthe particles being less.
Fran

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