Qatar Airways recently became the first airline ever to fly using fuel made of natural gas, attempting to show the airline industry that there are viable alternatives to oil-based fuel. Gary Woodward developed such fuel of natural gas with the help of synthetic gas-to-liquids (GTL) and conventional oil-based kerosene.

The airline company offered a free flight to customers who had made an early booking of the flight from London’s Gatwick airport to Doha and who could not cope with their nerves and thus were not able to contribute to historic progress.

Gary Woodward, general manager operations and technical supply at Shell, assured that such option would give a chance to abate dependence on oil-based fuel. GTL fuel is characterized as gas with low emissions of air pollutants which can help improve air quality at local airports air quality but at the same time it has higher carbon content in comparison with ordinary fuel.

Environmentalists started to denounce aviation because it influenced negatively on climate change. An agreement was promulgated last month according to which emissions should be cut to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2050.

Fuels based on substances ranging from coconut oil to algae were examined by various manufacturers and airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Continental Airlines and Air New Zealand. For the last two years five test flights among them a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400 trip used both biofuels and GTL. One engine of the Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400 operated on a 20 per cent biofuel mix of babassu oil and coconut oil.

Despite the fact that coal-to-liquid kerosene was used by commercial airlines in South Africa, Monday’s flight is considered to be the first that used gas-to-liquid moreover it is beneficial for the environment. (via FT)