Yesterday, Qatar Airways operated the first commercial passenger flight fueled by a mix of synthetic fuel made partially from natural gas. The aircraft, an Airbus A340-600 using Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines, was fuelled by a roughly 50:50 blend of GTL kerosene and standard jet fuel, a mix that has won regulatory approval.

The six-hour flight from London to Doha used fuel supplied by a Shell gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Malaysia.

For Qatar, this is much more than just a clean-energy/alternative-energy demonstration as Shell and the state-owned Qatar Petroleum are building the world’s biggest GTL plant – the “Pearl GTL”. They expect to start producing “GTL kerosene” approved for use in jet fuel in early 2012.

When the Pearl GTL project is fully completed, it will process about 1.6 billion cubic feet a day of gas from Qatar’s giant North Field, the largest gas field in the world, into 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of GTL products.

If you have been following this blog for a while, you probably know that we at FlyMiwok are very excited about the promise of synthetic fuels, and every day there seems to be another significant step taken in order to make this a reality. Certainly, the first commercial flight – with paying passengers on board – powered by a synthetic-fuel mix is a cause for celebration.

Gad Barnea – CEO – FlyMiwok, Inc.