A Qatar Airways flight from London to Doha has become the first commercial passenger aircraft to fly on natural gas.
The Airbus A340-600 aircraft flew for six hours to reach Doha on the evening of October 13.
The aircraft was powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines. It used an alternative of the blend of synthetic Gas to Liquids (GTL) kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel, developed by Shell. The fuel blend, known as GTL Jet Fuel, contributes to better air quality of airport as it burns with lower sulphur dioxide.
Data from the GTL flight will be used by scientists in Qatar to further quantify GTL Jet Fuel use benefits. The GTL kerosene will be produced in commercial quantities by the Pearl GTL project, currently under construction by Qatar Petroleum and Shell.
Qatar is set to become the leading producer of GTL in the world once commercial production begins from 2012.
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 (the American Society for Testing and Materials) International last month, added the release.
“Qatar’s position as the GTL capital of the world has been enhanced with this achievement. Commercial aviation is one of the exciting new markets that this opens up, helping us maximise the value from our natural resources,” said a release quoting Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, deputy prime minister and minister of energy and industry of Qatar.
