Qatar airways cleaner fuel for flights

Qatar Airways plans to invest in California's Byogy Renewables to produce cleaner jet fuel from alcohol, curbing carbon output to meet emission goals. "We're looking to underwrite an investment into Byogy of up to 10 per cent, coupled with an off-take agreement," Chris Schroeder, senior manager of corporate social responsibility, environment and fuel optimisation, said by phone, declining to disclose the value of the transaction. "This will enable the company to go into the market and look for further equity investment or other partners." Byogy, based in San Jose, makes jet fuel from alcohol in the US, where it expects the ASTM International standards body to endorse the manufacturing process by late 2013. Airlines have already won approval to mix fuel from inedible plants and organic waste with traditional kerosene-based jet fuel, and Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM Group are among carriers to have flown planes using the blend. "Being cautious, we hope we will have a couple of flights to Europe by the end of 2014 on a ‘drop-in' jet fuel made from ethanol," Schroeder said. Drop-in biofuels are sufficiently similar in chemical composition to kerosene to be blended in. The use of alcohol as feedstock would help curb carbon output as airlines seek to meet International Air Transport Association targets to halt the growth of emissions from 2020 and to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050 from 2005 levels. From gulfnews