An Airline Fleet Fueled by Natural Gas
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An Airline Fleet Fueled by Natural Gas
At the end of next year, Qatar Airways is scheduled to open a new airport that will include a 25-meter swimming pool and squash courts, among other amenities. But it will also be extraordinary from an energy standpoint because it will pump airline fuel made from natural gas
Qatar has relatively little oil and vast supplies of natural gas. Oil goeson tankers to distant destinations, but moving natural gas is much harder forthe Persian Gulf emirate. So Royal Dutch/Shell built a gas-to-liquidsplant called Pearl that makes a variety of liquid fuels.
Qatar is not quite the first out of the box with this approach. That wouldbe South Africa, which was driven to make liquids from coal in the days whenits apartheid regime faced trade sanctions and the country could not importoil. Now the countrymakes diesel and jet fuel from coal because it makes economic sense.
Liquids from coal and from natural gas are similar because the first step ineither process is to turn the hydrocarbon fuel into a gas consisting ofhydrogen and carbon monoxide. From there, further chemical processing yieldshydrogen and carbon combinations that are liquid at room temperature.
In South Africa’s case, environmentalists are horrified because such fuelshave a bigger carbon footprint than fuel from ordinary oil because of all theextra processing involved. In fact, it is like an extreme version of the tarsands of Alberta, which Canada turns into a crude oil that environmentalistshave been trying to keep out of the United States.
Visiting Washington on Wednesday, the chief executive of Qatar Airways,Akbar Al Baker, asserted that the fuel is easier on the environment than jetfuel made from petroleum. First, it has no sulfur and thus does not producesulfur dioxide, which is a more potent global warming gas than carbondioxide when emitted at low altitudes. (This is tricky: at higher altitudes,sulfur dioxide reflects sunlight back into space and thusin theory combats global warming.)
Second, the jet fuel from natural gas has slightly more energy per poundthan jet fuel from petroleum, so flying a given distance requires fewer poundsof fuel. And the lighter the fuel, the greater the fuel economy, he said.
The airline has four aircraft with Rolls Royce engines, and Rolls hasapproved the use of the fuel. The carrier has 110 aircraft with GeneralElectric engines, and Mr. Al Baker said that it was still awaiting formalapproval from G.E. Rolls may have been faster because it supplies engines toBritain’s Royal Air Force, and the R.A.F. conducted an early study of thesynthetic fuel produced by South Africa.
A G.E. spokesman, Rick Kennedy, said the company had already signed off onusing the fuel in G.E. engines, however. Engines running on the fuel requireless maintenance because they do not produce sulfur dioxide, he said, but thecompany does not see an advantage when it comes to reducing heat-trappingemissions related to global warming. Still, because the fuel is lighter, “youget a better fuel burn,’’ he said, which results in lower consumption.
A Boeing spokesman, Terrance Scott, said the fuel performs similarly totraditional fossil-based fuels. The company has shown more enthusiasm forinnovation in bio-based fuels, though.
The process of making fuel from natural gas “is extremely costly,energy-intensive and has life-cycle issues” that negate some of the benefitsfrom pursuing sustainable fuel options for the broader aviation market,’’ Mr.Scott said. “Qatar has the world’s largest natural gas reserves, so they havebeen pushing for innovative uses for it,” he noted, and “this is one examplethat makes sense in that region of the world.’’
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is lamenting the European Union’s taxes on carbondioxide emissions by foreign carriers that fly in and out of its airports.Qatar has moved some of its power plants to burn natural gas instead of oil,Mr. Al Baker said, and as a result can assign some carbon credits to theairline.
But he said he was rooting for the United States, which has taken anaggressive stand against the airline carbon taxes in a long-runningbattle. “We are a small country, and we cannot get into battles withlarge countries like the E.U.,’’ Mr. Al Baker said.
“We will let somebody else do our battle, then benefit,’’ he said
Qatar has relatively little oil and vast supplies of natural gas. Oil goeson tankers to distant destinations, but moving natural gas is much harder forthe Persian Gulf emirate. So Royal Dutch/Shell built a gas-to-liquidsplant called Pearl that makes a variety of liquid fuels.
Qatar is not quite the first out of the box with this approach. That wouldbe South Africa, which was driven to make liquids from coal in the days whenits apartheid regime faced trade sanctions and the country could not importoil. Now the countrymakes diesel and jet fuel from coal because it makes economic sense.
Liquids from coal and from natural gas are similar because the first step ineither process is to turn the hydrocarbon fuel into a gas consisting ofhydrogen and carbon monoxide. From there, further chemical processing yieldshydrogen and carbon combinations that are liquid at room temperature.
In South Africa’s case, environmentalists are horrified because such fuelshave a bigger carbon footprint than fuel from ordinary oil because of all theextra processing involved. In fact, it is like an extreme version of the tarsands of Alberta, which Canada turns into a crude oil that environmentalistshave been trying to keep out of the United States.
Visiting Washington on Wednesday, the chief executive of Qatar Airways,Akbar Al Baker, asserted that the fuel is easier on the environment than jetfuel made from petroleum. First, it has no sulfur and thus does not producesulfur dioxide, which is a more potent global warming gas than carbondioxide when emitted at low altitudes. (This is tricky: at higher altitudes,sulfur dioxide reflects sunlight back into space and thusin theory combats global warming.)
Second, the jet fuel from natural gas has slightly more energy per poundthan jet fuel from petroleum, so flying a given distance requires fewer poundsof fuel. And the lighter the fuel, the greater the fuel economy, he said.
The airline has four aircraft with Rolls Royce engines, and Rolls hasapproved the use of the fuel. The carrier has 110 aircraft with GeneralElectric engines, and Mr. Al Baker said that it was still awaiting formalapproval from G.E. Rolls may have been faster because it supplies engines toBritain’s Royal Air Force, and the R.A.F. conducted an early study of thesynthetic fuel produced by South Africa.
A G.E. spokesman, Rick Kennedy, said the company had already signed off onusing the fuel in G.E. engines, however. Engines running on the fuel requireless maintenance because they do not produce sulfur dioxide, he said, but thecompany does not see an advantage when it comes to reducing heat-trappingemissions related to global warming. Still, because the fuel is lighter, “youget a better fuel burn,’’ he said, which results in lower consumption.
A Boeing spokesman, Terrance Scott, said the fuel performs similarly totraditional fossil-based fuels. The company has shown more enthusiasm forinnovation in bio-based fuels, though.
The process of making fuel from natural gas “is extremely costly,energy-intensive and has life-cycle issues” that negate some of the benefitsfrom pursuing sustainable fuel options for the broader aviation market,’’ Mr.Scott said. “Qatar has the world’s largest natural gas reserves, so they havebeen pushing for innovative uses for it,” he noted, and “this is one examplethat makes sense in that region of the world.’’
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is lamenting the European Union’s taxes on carbondioxide emissions by foreign carriers that fly in and out of its airports.Qatar has moved some of its power plants to burn natural gas instead of oil,Mr. Al Baker said, and as a result can assign some carbon credits to theairline.
But he said he was rooting for the United States, which has taken anaggressive stand against the airline carbon taxes in a long-runningbattle. “We are a small country, and we cannot get into battles withlarge countries like the E.U.,’’ Mr. Al Baker said.
“We will let somebody else do our battle, then benefit,’’ he said
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