One of the VIPs that Audi invited to be present at the launch of the Mileage Marathon in New York on Monday was Sylvia Williams. Williams is the general manager of business development for future fuels at Shell. The main topic of interest in New York was GTL fuel. GTL is a synthetic liquid diesel fuel made from natural gas. The catalytic process used is similar to that used by companies such as Coskata that are producing cellulosic ethanol from a syngas generated from biomass. The #8 A4 that my friend Lou Ann Hammond drove from New York to Chicago started off the trip with a full tank of GTL. Unlike conventional petroleum diesel - and to a lesser extent biodiesel - GTL is completely clear, colorless and odorless. Since it contains no aromatic compounds it burns cleaner and actually produces dramatically less soot and fewer NOx emissions as well. Currently, GTL isn't available in North America but Shell sells a 10 percent GTL blend in Europe as a premium diesel under the V-Power brand because it also helps engine performance. One big advantage of GTL is that it can be used and distributed without any infrastructure or engine changes. It is however, more expensive than petroleum diesel. Check out Lou Ann's video interview after the jump.


[Source: Carlist.com]

Ever since the debut of the Audi R10 in 2006, the mighty diesel-powered sports cars have been running on a gas-to-liquid (GTL) diesel fuel supplied by Shell. For the 2008 running of the 24 hours of Le Mans coming up in a few weeks, Audi and Shell will try a new blend that combines the GTL fuel with a BTL (biomass-to-liquid) fuel supplied by Choren. Choren is a German company that has been collaborating with Audi's parent company Volkswagen to develop the BTL diesel branded as SunFuel. Like cellulosic ethanol, BTL is produced from non-food biomass like wood chips. Choren plans to have the worlds first commercial demonstration plant open in Freiberg, Germany within a year. A small percentage of BTL is being mixed into the GTL fuel for this year's race. This will be the first ever use of second-gen biofuel at Le Mans. Shell's GTL fuel is branded as V-Power and is sold at over 7,000 stations in Europe.

[Source: Shell]

Two years after its racing debut at the 2006 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Audi R10 TDI is making its first ever visit to the classic Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium. The R10s are running in the European Le Mans Series for the first time this year and Spa will be a whole new challenge for Audi. The length of the Belgian track has been cut by more than half to 4.4miles from its original 9.3miles but it still remains one of the most challenging tracks in the world. The diesel-powered Audis will again be taking on the dominant Peugeot 908 HDis but the R10s are fueled by a GTL fuel supplied by technical partner Shell. GTL is a gas to liquid fuel produced from natural gas. GTL has an advantage over conventional petroleum diesel in that it is free of sulfur and produces less particulate emissions without any changes to the engine. The same processes used to produce the liquid fuel from natural gas can be used to produce fuel from a syngas derived from biomass. Audi's press release is after the jump.

The aircraft industry is feeling the heat when it comes to their emissions just as the automakers are. In an effort to reduce air travel's carbon footprint, Airbus is testing a new type of aircraft fuel called GTL, which is a liquid fuel made from natural gas. Natural gas emits the least amount of carbon of any fossil fuel, so the resulting liquid fuel is much greener than ordinary jet fuel. Research suggests that GTL can also be created synthetically using the Fischer-Tropsch process.

Airbus has successfully completed a flight using a blend of GTL and regular jet fuel. The flight, starting in the UK and ending in France, was successful and "will pave the way for approval of synthetic jet fuel in the future," according to Sjoerd Post, Vice President of Shell Aviation. Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders says that "It is part and parcel of Airbus' commitment to providing leadership as an eco-efficient enterprise". Here is a link to a video regarding the flight.

Considering that greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have increased 87 percent from 1990 to 2006, innovative solutions like GTL fuel will likely become increasingly important.

[Source: Airbus via Gizmag]

When the money gurus converge on Davos Switzerland for their annual confab next week they will again be shuttled around in a fleet of Audi A8s. The 81 cars provided by Volkswagen's premium division will be propelled by 3.0L V-6 TDI engines. For the first time Audi will be using GTL fuel provided by Shell. The gas-to-liquid diesel fuel is produced from natural gas and allows the fuel consumption to be reduced by 10 percent compared to the cars used last year. Unlike conventional petroleum diesel, the GTL fuel has no sulfur or aromatic compounds. Some of the benefits of GTL diesel include a 93 percent drop in carbon monoxide emissions, and a 30 percent cut in NOx emissions with no engine modifications. The chauffeur fleet is expected to emit 13 percent less CO₂ this year than in 2007. Audi has already been using GTL diesel in the R10 TDI Le Mans racers for the past two seasons.

[Source: Audi, thanks to Christian for the tip]

The Oryx gas-to-liquid (GTL) plant in Qatar started exporting its output about a month ago but the Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah says the tiny Persian Gulf state has no intention of using the fuel locally. The GTL fuel needs to be blended with other fuels to make it usable and the local market isn't large enough to justify doing this. The cost of GTL is also much higher than other fuels so they see no need to keep it in the country.

The $1 billion plant is a joint venture with South Africa's Sasol and is the first commercial GTL facility outside of South Africa. The plant has a capacity of 24,000 barrels per day of diesel, 9,000 of naptha and 1,000 barrels of LPG.

[Source: Gulf Times]

Not to be one-upped by Honda, CNET is reporting that the leader in hybrid technology, Toyota, will release a flex-fuel ethanol/gasoline capable car in Brazil during the Spring of 2007. The vehicle model and price have yet to be disclosed, but if they are planning to match Honda's efforts we shouldn't be surprised to see them offer a converted version of either the Corolla or Yaris or both. The vehicles should be capable of running on any blend of ethanol and gasoline, even E100.

The article also states that Toyota has started testing gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel cars in Europe. Converted from natural gas, GTL offers significantly reduced emissions for diesels using a process similar coal liquefaction. The cost, however, for GTL production is expensive as it takes roughly 10,000 cubic feet of natural gas to produce a barrel of oil.

[Source: CNET]

Shell and Germany's UFOP (Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants) just released a study comparing the exhaust gas and particle emissions of fossil diesels with B5 and B20 biodiesel fuels. The five fuel blends tested were

-Diesel Fuel (DF)
-Shell Middle Distillate with lubrication additives, (Gas to Liquid Fuel, or GTL)
-Premium Diesel Fuel (PDF), which was a biodiesel blend of 20 percent Rapeseed Oil Methyl Ester (RME) with 20 percent GTL and 60 percent DF
-Pure RME
-A blend of 5 percent biodiesel and 95 percent GTL (B5GTL).

The findings show that GTL had lower emissions that DF, and the biodiesels had lower hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and particle mass emissions. You can read the entire 43-page, chart-filled PDF here. The tests were conducted on a truck engine that meets Euro 3 standards and was also testing what might happen with changes in diesel engine technology. Another reason for the study was to determine the possible characteristics of a biomass to liquid fuel prototype fuel.

[Source: UFOP via Dieselnet]