DUBAI – Qatar Airways said it has completed the world’s first commercial passenger flight powered by fuel made from natural gas, highlighting the aviation industry’s continued efforts to reduce its dependency on oil-based fuel.

The flight from London Gatwick to Doha, Qatar, Monday was operated with an Airbus A340-600 aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Group engines, using a mixture of synthetic gas-to-liquids, or GTL, kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel developed by Royal Dutch Shell, the airline said in an emailed statement.

“This milestone flight is the first step in making this alternative fuel available to airlines,” Qatar Airways’ Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said in the statement.

The aviation industry is under growing pressure from environmental groups to reduce harmful emissions. Airline executives last month pledged to cut emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2050.

A number of airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Continental Airlines (CAL) and Air New Zealand, have been testing biofuels on commercial flights as an alternative to existing pollutants.

Last December, Air New Zealand successfully flew a test flight powered by second-generation biofuel.

It was the world’s first test flight using jatropha biofuel and followed a Virgin Atlantic test flight earlier in the year using a blend including coconut oil and babassu nut oil.

In February 2008, Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. (EADSY), flew an A380 powered by GTL fuel.

However, Qatar Airways claims to be the first airline to use GTL kerosene on a commercial passenger flight.

“We are now well on the way to launching GTL on a world scale for the first time,” said Malcolm Brinded, Shell’s executive director upstream international.

Qatar Airways didn’t provide any details on by how much the GTL fuel would reduce emissions compared with conventional kerosene.

The Persian Gulf state of Qatar, holder of the world’s third-largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran, 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, or LNG, and by the end of the decade will have a total capacity of more than 77 million tons a year.

Shell and Qatar Petroleum are building the world’s largest GTL plant in the Gulf state. The first phase of the Pearl GTL facility being built at Ras Laffan Industrial City is scheduled for completion by the end of next year.

The plant will produce around 1 million tons per annum of GTL kerosene from 2012, enough to fuel a commercial aircraft for 500 million kilometers, the Qatar Airways’ statement said.

“Commercial aviation is one of the exciting new markets that this opens up, helping us maximise the value from our natural resources,” Abdulla bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Qatar’s deputy prime minister and minister of energy and industry said in the statement.

GTL jet fuel, a 50:50 blend of synthetic GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel, was approved as safe for use in civil aviation by ASTM International last month.

Source: business.maktoob.com