Could planes be fuelled by natural gas?
The idea has been mooted that airliners could be fuelled by natural gas instead of kerosene.
It came up a meeting at the Hanover Fair between ourselves and Rumi Moiz, managing director and Omar Zaman, chief executive officer of R&D Precision Exports, part of a Karachi, Pakistan based engineering company that produces parts for aircraft and natural gas car fuelling systems, among other products.
On a morning that crude oil had just passed $117 per barrel, with no signs of its becoming much cheaper any time soon, it seemed an obvious idea. Pakistan, like many countries, has fairly abundant natural gas but no oil and so has encouraged use of natural gas as a transport fuel to the point that more than a million motor vehicles in the country now run on compressed natural gas. Liquefied natural gas for use in aircraft would pose some challenges, since it has to be kept well below –83 deg C but there is lots of it - continental ocean shelves contain some 400 million trillion cubic feet, (11 million trillion cubic metres) and much methane, its main constituent, is produced by decaying rubbish, so it is a renewable resource. Moiz and Zaman could see no reason why it could not be used for aircraft fuel and invite interested parties to contact them if they are looking for components.
