Qatar Airways Makes Historic Journey From London Gatwick To Doha
A Qatar Airways aircraft has completed the world’s first commercial passenger flight powered by a fuel made from natural gas. The historic journey from London Gatwick to Doha took over six hours, using an Airbus A340-600 aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines. Shell developed and produced the 50-50 blend of synthetic Gas to Liquids (GTL) kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel. Qatar State aims to become the world’s leading producer of GTL kerosene when it goes into commercial production from 2012.
As an alternative to conventional oil-based kerosene, it will contribute to diversification of aviation fuel supplies. It burns with lower sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions than conventional oil-based kerosene, so it's attractive for improving air quality near busy airports. The blend of conventional kerosene and GTL kerosene will be known as GTL Jet Fuel. The flight was the latest step in over two years of scientific work undertaken by a consortium of Airbus, Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Science & Technology Park, Rolls-Royce, Shell and WOQOD into the benefits of using GTL Jet Fuel to power commercial aircraft. Much of this work is being undertaken at the Qatar Science & Technology Park in Doha.
“Qatar’s position as world GTL capital was further enhanced with this achievement. GTL technology enables us to produce liquid fuels and other products from natural gas. Commercial aviation is one of the exciting new markets this opens up, helping us maximise the value from our natural resources,” said His Excellency Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar.
A delegation of consortium members and international media was onboard flight QR076 for the milestone trip. Data from the GTL flight will be used by scientists in Qatar to further quantify GTL Jet Fuel use benefits.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker, who was onboard the flight, said: “Qatar Airways is proud to be associated with this consortium and to become the world’s first airline to use this new fuel technology on a commercial passenger flight.
“Once again, Qatar Airways has shown its commitment to the environment and we expect this alternative fuel to provide benefits, particularly the improvement of air quality. This milestone flight is the first step in making this alternative fuel available to airlines. Qatar Airways looks forward to continuing to work with the consortium members to further develop this exciting project and commit towards a cleaner environment.”
The GTL kerosene will be produced in commercial quantities by the Pearl GTL project, being built by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The project is expected to produce around one million tonnes yearly of GTL kerosene from 2012, enough to power a commercial airliner for half a billion kilometres (equivalent to carrying 250 passengers around the world 4,000 times) when used in a 50 per cent blend to make GTL Jet Fuel. GTL Jet Fuel, with GTL kerosene up to 50 per cent, was fully and unconditionally approved as safe for use in civil aviation by ASTM International (originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) last month.
The approval followed two years of separate research and discussion by the ASTM specification group, a separate consensus body consisting of producers, equipment manufacturers and consumers of aviation fuel.
In the 1920s German scientists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch invented a method of converting gas to liquids. Some 50 years later, Shell developed this into a Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis, which has brought GTL kerosene to us.
