At the Arab Aviation Summit in Doha last weekend, ‘Sky Blue’, the aviation industry in the Arab region has been sharing best practices and determining their priorities in order to achieve the industry-wide targets that will be set at the Copenhagen Climate Summit next month. Aviation in the Arab region has a very low emissions output, in part due to the comparatively new fleets of aircraft operating in the region, and also through the development of alternative energy methods. Qatar Airways sets a good example with their development of gas-to-liquids (GTL) aviation fuel – a sustainable fuel which burns greatly reduce carbon emissions in comparison to conventional oil-based petroleum. Qatar Airways made history in October this year by being the first airline to power a flight from London Gatwick to Doha on a fuel made of natural gas, and is expected to become the world’s leading producer of GTL kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012.

Also in the news this week, director-general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani has expressed how he believes the aviation industry can act as a model for Copenhagen climate talks. Aviation, Bisignani says, is a “microcosm of the climate change debate” and can lead the way with much-needed solutions needed from this conference, demonstrated already with the ambitious targets the industry has made for 2020 and 2050. Bisignani points out to the impressive track record the industry has shown, with achievements such as 70 million tons of CO2 saved by IATA in the last 5 years through operational solutions. Sustainable biofuels could further reduce aviation’s carbon footprint by up to 80%. Progress is indeed fast moving, and even just this week, KLM became the first airline to carry out a test flight carrying passengers, that was fuelled on 50% camelina, a biofuel, and 50% traditional fuel.

Another test flight took place this week – the last of a series of 10 that had been part of the ‘Minimum CO2 in Terminal Manoeuvring Area’ (MINT) project. The project has seen a series of 10 test flights in all which were investigating how modern aircraft can support performance based operations. The results showed significant reductions in emissions with savings of around 518 kg of CO2, reduced noise impact, and improvement of the predictability in the air transport system. MINT uses systems such as GPS and Required Navigation Performance, and operations such as Continuous Descent Arrival.

We wrote last week about the first commercial flight to use a new gas-to-liquid fuel - CNN's Ayesha Durgahee was on that flight and filed this report:

I wrote last week about the recent certification of gas to liquid fuel for use in commercial aircraft. Well, today we saw the first commerical flight using such fuel. In fact, Qatar Airways flight QR076 from London Gatwick to Doha was flown with a 50/50 mix of alternative fuel and normal jet fuel in each of its four engines. As I wrote previously, this new type of fuel is a little better for reducing emissions than traditional fuel, but it does provide an important stepping-stone between traditional fossil fuel and truly sustainable biofuels.

The GTL kerosene will be produced in commercial quantities by the Pearl GTL project, currently under construction by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The project is expected to produce around one million tonnes per annum of GTL kerosene from 2012, enough to power a typical commercial airliner for half a billion kilometres (equivalent to carrying 250 passengers around the world 4,000 times) when used in a 50 per cent blend to make GTL Jet Fuel.

News this week from the world of alternative fuels. ASTM has given the OK for fuels made from non-oil sources to be used in aircraft. Exciting stuff, yes? Let me explain…
 

ASTM International sets the standards for the chemical properties and production methods of jet fuel. Currently, we in the industry use “Jet A” or “JetA-1” fuel for most commercial airline flights. The key attributes of this fuel are listed in the table to the left. Obviously, this fuel comes from oil at the moment. In the last few days, ASTM has approved the use of a fuel on commercial flights that doesn’t come just from oil.

Their latest specifications allow for, among other things, a 50% mix of fuel made from the gas-to-liquid process to be used. This process, also known as GTL, takes natural gas and turns it into a liquid fuel. Just like the name suggests! In fact, this fuel standard allows any fuels using the  "Fischer-Tropsch" process to be used in a mix with traditional fuels.

Now, gas-to-liquid fuel has some advantages over normal old fuel made from oil – it has lower particulate emissions and a slightly higher energy density (you can fly a little further on the same quantity of fuel). But of course, it is still using fossil fuels and the production of the fuel takes energy and results in CO2 emissions as well.

But it is a good step. Now that ASTM International have approved this fuel mix, the door is opened a little wider to the real environmental pay-off that comes with sustainable biofuels.