World’s first commercial passenger flight motorized by fuel made from natural gas lands in Qatar

A Qatar Airways aircraft completed the world’s first commercial passenger flight power-driven by a fuel made from natural gas. The remarkable journey from London Gatwick to Doha took above six hours and was operated with an Airbus A340-600 aircraft using Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines.

Shell developed and formed the 50-50 blend of synthetic Gas to Liquids (GTL) kerosene and conservative oil-based kerosene fuel. The State of Qatar is locate to become the world’s leading producer of GTL kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012.

The fuel, as an option to conventional oil-based kerosene, will supply to diversification of aviation fuel supply. It also burns up with lower sulphur dioxide and particulate discharges than pure conservative oil-based kerosene, making it gorgeous for improving local air quality at busy airports.

The merge of conventional kerosene and GTL kerosene will be known as GTL Jet Fuel. The flight was the latest footstep over two years of scientific work approved by an association consisting of Airbus, Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Science & Technology Park, Rolls-Royce, Shell and WOQOD into the profit of using GTL Jet Fuel to power commercial aircraft. A great deal of this work is being undertaken at the Qatar Science & Technology Park in Doha.

“Qatar’s location as the GTL capital of the world has been further improved with today’s achievement. GTL technology enables us to generate liquid fuels and other products from natural gas. Commercial aviation is one of the electrifying new markets that this opens up, helping us maximize the value from our natural resources,” supposed Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker, who was onboard the flight, said: “Qatar Airways is proud to be connected with this consortium and to develop into the world’s first airline to use this new fuel technology on a commercial passenger flight.

“Once again, Qatar Airways has shown its assurance to the environment and we expect this alternative fuel to provide benefits, particularly the enhancement of air quality. This highlight flight is the first step in making this alternative fuel available to airlines. Qatar Airways looks ahead to continuing to work with the association members to further increase this exciting project and consign towards a cleaner environment.”

The GTL kerosene will be formed in commercial quantities by the Pearl GTL project, presently under construction by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The project is estimated to produce about one million tonnes per annum of GTL kerosene from 2012, enough to power a classic commercial airliner for half a billion kilometres (equal to carrying 250 passengers around the world 4,000 times) when used in a 50 percent combine to make GTL Jet Fuel. GTL Jet Fuel, with GTL kerosene up to 50 per cent, was entirely and unconditionally accepted as safe for use in civil aviation by ASTM International (originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) last month.

Dr Eulian Roberts, Managing Director of the Qatar Science & Technology Park, said: “The commitment of Qatar Airways and the consortium partners to make sure that new aviation fuel technology is efficiently applied is a great example of the kind of research being established at QSTP through its partners. Research activities on choice and environmentally-friendly fuels like GTL will launch QSTP as a leading international center for the application of new platform technologies. This is a great example of an effective multi-partner collaborative research and development programme which is already producing successful outcomes.”

Malcolm Brinded, Shell’s Executive Director Upstream International, added: “Today’s flight opens the door to an another choice to oil-based aviation fuel. Shell has been rising the technology to change natural gas into valuable liquid transportation fuels, lubricants and chemical feedstocks for more than 30 years. We are now fit to launching GTL on a world level for the first time thanks to our partnership with Qatar Petroleum.”