An Airline Fleet Fueled by Natural Gas

 An Airline Fleet Fueled by Natural Gas

 By MATTHEW L. WALD

At the end of next year, Qatar Airways is scheduled to open a new airport that will include a 25-meter swimming pool and squash courts, among other amenities. But it will also be extraordinary from an energy standpoint because it will pump airline fuel made from natural gas.

Qatar has relatively little oil and vast supplies of natural gas. Oil goes on tankers to distant destinations, but moving natural gas is much harder for the Persian Gulf emirate. So Royal Dutch/Shell built a gas-to-liquids plant called Pearl that makes a variety of liquid fuels.

Qatar is not quite the first out of the box with this approach. That would be South Africa, which was driven to make liquids from coal in the days when its apartheid regime faced trade sanctions and the country could not import oil.Now the country makes diesel and jet fuel from coal because it makes economic sense.

Liquids from coal and from natural gas are similar because the first step in either process is to turn the hydrocarbon fuel into a gas consisting of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. From there, further chemical processing yields hydrogen and carbon combinations that are liquid at room temperature.
In South Africa’s case, environmentalists are horrified because such fuels have a bigger carbon footprint than fuel from ordinary oil because of all the extra processing involved. In fact, it is like an extreme version of the tar sands of Alberta, which Canada turns into a crude oil that environmentalists have been trying to keep out of the United States.


Visiting Washington on Wednesday, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, asserted that the fuel is easier on the environment than jet fuel made from petroleum. First, it has no sulfur and thus does not produce sulfur dioxide, which is a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide when emitted at low altitudes. (This is tricky: at higher altitudes, sulfur dioxide reflects sunlight back into space and thus in theory combats global warming.)

Second, the jet fuel from natural gas has slightly more energy per pound than jet fuel from petroleum, so flying a given distance requires fewer pounds of fuel. And the lighter the fuel, the greater the fuel economy, he said.

The airline has four aircraft with Rolls Royce engines, and Rolls has approved the use of the fuel. The carrier has 110 aircraft with General Electric engines, and Mr. Al Baker said that it was still awaiting formal approval from G.E. Rolls may have been faster because it supplies engines to Britain’s Royal Air Force, and the R.A.F. conducted an early study of the synthetic fuel produced by South Africa.

A G.E. spokesman, Rick Kennedy, said the company had already signed off on using the fuel in G.E. engines, however. Engines running on the fuel require less maintenance because they do not produce sulfur dioxide, he said, but the company does not see an advantage when it comes to reducing heat-trapping emissions related to global warming. Still, because the fuel is lighter, “you get a better fuel burn,’’ he said, which results in lower consumption.

A Boeing spokesman, Terrance Scott, said the fuel performs similarly to traditional fossil-based fuels. The company has shown more enthusiasm for innovation in bio-based fuels, though.
The process of making fuel from natural gas “is extremely costly, energy-intensive and has life-cycle issues” that negate some of the benefits from pursuing sustainable fuel options for the broader aviation market,’’ Mr. Scott said. “Qatar has the world’s largest natural gas reserves, so they have been pushing for innovative uses for it,” he noted, and “this is one example that makes sense in that region of the world.’’

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is lamenting the European Union’s taxes on carbon dioxide emissions by foreign carriers that fly in and out of its airports. Qatar has moved some of its power plants to burn natural gas instead of oil, Mr. Al Baker said, and as a result can assign some carbon credits to the airline.

But he said he was rooting for the United States, which has taken an aggressive stand against the airline carbon taxes in a long-running battle. “We are a small country, and we cannot get into battles

with large countries like the E.U.,’’ Mr. Al Baker said.
“We will let somebody else do our battle, then benefit,’’ he said.
 

 

Boeing Looks To Future Technology Needs In MAX Design

Boeing is preparing for a big shift to advanced satellite navigation systems by adopting 787-style digital displays for the 737 MAX program, which will enable easier upgrades as airlines adapt to evolving air traffic control requirements.

The flight deck upgrade “was an important program decision” made on the advice of the 737 Airline Advisory Board, 737 General Manager and Boeing VP Beverly Wyse said today during a conference call detailing the completion of the MAX program’s “firm concept,” which defines its design and capabilities.

Boeing and CFM in April expect to achieve a design freeze on the centerpiece of the MAX program, the introduction of the fuel-saving CFM Leap-1B engine, following their completion of the basic architecture in September. “We have locked down fan size and stage count,” says Chief Project Engineer Michael Teal.

The Leap-1B development begins with the first engine test expected close to June 2014, followed by a start of flight tests in first quarter 2015. FAR 33 certification of the -1B is expected in the first quarter 2016, providing margin for flight testing in 2016.


Aviation Week has learned those flight tests are set for the second quarter.

Wyse says eight aircraft will be involved in MAX testing, four 737-8s, two -9s and two -7s. Boeing’s model designations follow the basic 737-700/800/900ER that they replace.

Three variants of the Leap’s first two core designs have so far been tested, and three more core designs are expected. “We will be running a Core 4 and Core 5 to look at technology for the future,” says Leap Program Manager Gareth Richards. These cores also will be used to support the GE9X development program for the 777X and evolutionary Leap designs, he says.

Final thrust ratings for the Leap-1B are still open but are expected to be about 28,000 lb., making the powerplant slightly smaller than the 33,000 lb. thrust models CFM is developing for the Leap-1A for the Airbus A320NEO and Leap-1C for the Comac C919. Boeing expects to announce the target thrust “before engine design freeze and before we reach firm configuration on the 737 MAX,” Teal says.
Teal says Boeing’s design team has eliminated a chin bump at the nose-wheel landing gear doors that was previously planned to accommodate a longer retraction mechanism. Using radial tires will help because they take less space than bias-ply tires, he says.

The MAX also will employ a digitally controlled electronic bleed air system from Honeywell that will enable pilots to fine-tune cabin pressurization levels based on the exact number of passengers on board as another fuel-saving measure.

The NG’s mechanical bleed air system is controlled by an on-off switch, but digital controls will enable MAX pilots to save fuel flow based on actual payload requirements, says Carl Esposito, Honeywell’s director of product management.

VP Jeff Standerski says Rockwell Collins “had to buy our way onto the airplane” by proving that its 15.1 in. LCD cockpit displays will offer greater operational efficiencies over the current NG system, which uses 8 in. Honeywell displays.


More important, the displays “set up airlines for the future of air navigation,” he says, because they are easily upgradable for synthetic vision, head-up displays (HUDs) and other system advances. Those upgrades bring higher safety margins for flying in deteriorated weather. Just last week, the Civil Aviation Administration of China approved HUDs for eight main airports and expects to add 58 more by 2015.

Despite its larger size, the “look and feel of the new system” will be similar to the NG’s, Standerski says, enabling the rapid transition for NG pilots to the MAX that airlines want.

DeeP DeeeeP......

Life is quicksand. The people in your life are different objects in your own personal quicksand. You hold onto some and try to haul yourself out while you touch others and instantly sink. Sink deep down till the mud fills your mouth and ears and nose and poof, you're gone.

Taken frame by frame, life is excruciating. In fast forward, life is inconsequential. But we're cool and useless so we take it nice and slow. Life is grim. It is grey. We move slowly and deliberately through it in slow motion. We see our arms and legs leave streaks in the surroundings.We waddle through an invisible molasses, which isn't even sweet. Bastard molasses.

If we had to be suspended in something, it should be lemon jelly. Lemon because it'd be a nice neutral colour and we would at least feel fresh all the time, and jelly because this lovely lady makes it sound so very appealing.

THE PERILS OF SELF PROMOTION: 8 Mistakes of Seminarians & Young Pastors

THE PERILS OF SELF PROMOTION: 8 Mistakes of Seminarians & Young Pastors

THE PERILS OF SELF-PROMOTION: 8 Mistakes of Seminarians & Young Pastors

Delivered to Westminster Seminary, CA- URCNA Students

Text: Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate…So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel (2 Sam 15:2).

The peril of self-promotion in the Christian ministry is nothing new.  Jesus himself had to deal with this problem on numerous occasions in his own disciples.  The Son of God became a servant to seek and to save that which was lost, and before him were his own followers often arguing about greatness, fighting over the best seats, and pushing their earthly agendas upon him for their own glory in the here and now.  Jesus took every opportunity to correct this problem, summarily when he said, “whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt 20:27-28).”
 

Over the years I have witnessed this problem in the pastoral ministry both in myself and in others.  As I see a new generation of young pastors aspiring to the pulpit ministry, I would like to offer some reflection upon mistakes that are common both to young men training for pulpit ministry and for young pastors.  No one ever warned me of these things, so I hope such a reflection will help us all to remember that our calling is to be servants.
 

 1. I’ve Got A Hero
 

We are used to a Christianity that is full of stars, and the Reformed world has some of the most notable.  Combine personality with a robust theology and you have quite an attraction in our day of mindless Christianity. The Reformed world has really become its own little theological Hollywood, and we unite together around the theological giant who has a name.  While nothing is wrong with appreciating, learning from, and implementing the teachings of godly teachers set apart for our training, this does become a problem when we are trying to become that giant. This easily becomes our identity in our formative years.  We think like, act like, and begin to speak like the success who has influenced us the most. We’re afraid to speak apart from that identity. We feel safe within the personality of the hero we have adopted. What becomes of our homiletic training and preparation? We are emboldened in our preaching in so far as we achieved sounding like our hero.

The danger here is evident.  Not only are we guilty of following Apollos, Paul, Sproul, Piper, Beeke, et al, but we have pushed to the side the real agent of blessing in the Christian ministry, the Holy Spirit.  If the ultimate goal of our training and study is to preach Christ, what good is such preparation if we have forgotten the one who bears witness to Christ, even though we have achieved exegetical accuracy through the lens of our hero?   Hywel Jones summarizes the problem well when he concludes that preaching is today driven by the importance of exegetical accuracy and contemporary relevance, but in our attention to Scripture, has the Holy Spirit been forgotten?

 2. I’ve Become, Look at Me

As time goes on, the new pastor begins to realize that the identity he has adopted isn’t working real well in the ministry itself.  It was good for the seminary days, but for some reason, the draw just isn’t happening out at ground zero.  Where is the interest?  Why did it work for my hero and not me?  What often happens is that pastor begins to search for a new hero, or he tries to develop himself as his own new brand of hero.  If he adopts the former, often an overt shift in theological emphasis occurs with the goal of breaking the perceived stagnation. He adopts Piper's satisfication message, Beeke's assurance emphasis, Sproul's holiness of God recovery. Everything becomes built around one of these themes.

If the latter is pursued, the result will be some kind of pastoral make-over.  Excessive attention is given to books, lectures, speaking engagements, sermons, all with the goal of trying to get people to adopt the pastor himself as their hero.  There is a real danger here of theological narcissism, and radical paradigm shifts often follow.  I’ve been amazed in my short time of ministry how many pastors continue to swing from pendulum to pendulum—low liturgy to high, Chuck Smith to Pope Benedict, belief to unbelief. What is most disturbing is how much public attention is given to these theological shifts, along with the readiness to dissect, debate, and dissemble, in public, the former views once held, and with robust passion.
 

 3. I’m Ready For Debate

Young pastors, especially seminarians, should stay out of, as much as is possible, theological controversies.  As a side note, I also think our churches and seminaries should protect our seminarians from these controversies.  Seminarians are quick to jump into the fight.  I observed recently that a seminary student wrote a chapter in a book on one of the major theological controversies in the Reformed world.  This was poor oversight of this young seminarian and it opened him up to scrutiny before he has even been ordained.  Seminary students have one job, and that is to learn and to be teachable.  Theological controversy will always be around.  Those who are the most humble and teachable in their preparation today will be the greatest defenders of the truth tomorrow.
 

 4. I’m the Vox Dei

In the Reformed tradition we have a high view of preaching.  The one who proclaims the Word of God is sent by Christ to authoritatively declare his will.  But what happens when that Word is not being heard?  What is the pastor to do when, in the middle of controversy, it seems that no one is heeding the admonitions of the Lord?  There is a view of the pastor as the vox dei that is abusive.  In the midst of controversy, it’s easy for the pastor to brow beat the congregation into submission with the added threat that the people are sinning against God if they do not accept lock, stock and barrel everything the pastor says. 
 

Controversy can often so easily warp the pastors sermon preparation that he is unable to think, see, or apply Scripture beyond the controversy.  Never does the pastor stop and ask why, in every sermon, am I coming up with the same applications to the current controversy? When the pastor uses the pulpit this way, he has struck the rock sinfully, and will have the slow effect of losing his congregation. I have seen many a pastor end up defrocked from the ministry for such abuse.
 

5. I’ll Deal With This

The pastor holds an incredible position of power.  He is used to everyone coming to him for the answers.  The young pastor is prone to tackle every single problem in the church. Beware of this, the devil will attack your ministry at the inception with some kind of controversy in the church—a divorce, a mixed marriage, a leadership problem, a discipline case. The pressure for the pastor to get the situation solved immediately, exercise the key of discipline hastily, and take the problem into his own hands is a dangerous one. 
 

My advice to a young pastor is to make a distinction between those things that pertain to your office and those things that do not. With regard to the later, stay out, with regard to the former, lean heavily upon your elders. They are given to shepherd the congregation, and the pastor is sent to minister the Word and assist in the shepherding of the elders. Pastors who are too involved in disciplines cases and in the minutiae of church life will lose their effectiveness in the pulpit.  We are not micro-managers.  We are shepherds.  For this reason, I believe the pastor should not be the one reading discipline statements from the pulpit.  An elder should do this, if only for the sake of the one being disciplined that he will still be able to receive the preaching of the Word.
 

6. You Should Call Me

Seminary is an artificial atmosphere. Here students pick-apart, dissect, and “make perfect” the sermon as they are taught by qualified men who the Lord has set apart for this important task.  The student then takes his well-crafted sermon out to the churches, preaches it over and over until it is perfected.  People approach him after the sermon saying things like, “Wow, you are a great preacher. We would love to have someone like you here.”  They mean well.  The people are generally excited about the fresh new seminarian—his life, his excitement, his passion.
 

After a bit of this, the seminary student begins to take it in.  Everyone has confirmed his gift of being a pastor, there should be no barrier to his receiving of a call.  He begins to think, “Wow, I would love to pastor that church that has received me so well.”  Though not overtly, he is preaching so as to candidate, even though the church has a pastor. He visits, preaches with enthusiasm, and secretly would love to have that pulpit. 

What he has not considered is that the pastor of that was once treated like that too.  He was the young guy on the block, and the honeymoon was really enjoyable. But after years of the warfare, and a current conflict in the church, things have weighed on him.  Pastor is tired. The seminary student and young pastor should realize this dilemma.  Such a praised situation is not the normal life of the ministry.  Be careful not to self-promote when you preach in another pastor’s church.  While you should receive the encouragements from God’s people as a blessing and confirmation of your calling, realize that what you are receiving is not the normal life of the pastorate. 
 

7. Are You Questioning Me?
 

Always be willing to ask for forgiveness and be humble.  If you ever get to the point where you cannot accept or receive any criticism, pride has overcome you.  We will sin and make many mistakes along the way, and the willingness to seek for reconciliation is a big qualification of a servant.  There will always be antagonists in the church, and I believe God allows for these thorns in the flesh to keep us humble. We should see in these thorns a representation of ourselves in how we have treated the Lord, being reminded of his unfailing love for us.

 

I never accepted criticism well in my early years.  A seasoned pastor once reminded me that he was often roasted at the Sunday lunch by his parishioners and that I should get used to this about the ministry, lest I start acting like a cult leader.  I never forgot that advice.
 

8. Here Is How I Do Things
 

Inflexibility in matters of indifferent things will kill your ministry.  Be balanced and never forget why you are doing what you are doing.  The letter to church in Ephesus is one to remember.  They were commended for their doctrinal integrity, but were charged for leaving their first love.

 

What exactly was a leaving of the first love?  Ask yourself, why are you preparing so diligently to become a pastor? Imagine rising early every week to prepare a sermon, working hard, tending to the calling, and forgetting why you are doing these things. Your heart would not be in the work.  This was the problem in Ephesus. It was wonderful they were exposing error, but why were they doing this?  Was it to validate them or was it because they cared deeply for the souls of those who being seduced away into false teaching and things that Christ hates?
 

We can apply this to ministry.  Are we preaching and teaching to validate us, or are we doing all of these things with the goal that every man would be presented perfect in Christ, as Paul states. If it’s the former, we are merely promoting ourselves, if it’s the later; we are servants in the calling Christ has placed upon us.

 

 

B. James Wilson Announces the Release of "Kingdom of Light"

   

 




    Just in time for Christmas, B. James Wilson's latest novel, Kingdom of Light has been released in digital format by Smashwords.com for all e-readers. It is available for download now from Smashwords.com, Apple's iBook Store, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and many other e-book distributers. (Soon to be available in printed form.) Don't miss this amazing story of heroism being called "the back-story to Genesis in the Bible".

    Kingdom of Light is the tale of a demon's dark past as told to Mike Brennan, a NYC fireman who has entered the basement of a burning building to rescue an abandoned child in the predawn hours of 9/11. In that burning basement, Mike confronts a demon who has long been chained in a dark, dungeon oubliette. He is the prisoner of an ancient war that has raged unseen for millennia. Now, Mike's sudden appearance presents the demon with an opportunity for escape. In the course of their encounter, Mike will be forced to face his own dark past. He will be compelled to choose what sacrifice he is willing to make in order to save his own life, or the life of an unwanted child. In the midst of chaos, ancient war and the rush of time, Mike Brennan will be forced  decide who will live and who will die.

About the Author:

    B. James Wilson is the author of a wide variety of fiction. He is an artist, a teacher and student of the Bible, a lover of literature, music, sailing and the outdoors. He grew up in Miami where he spent his summers boating and fishing on Biscayne Bay. His family moved to Florida's Space Coast to become a part of the "race to the moon". There, he graduated from Satellite High School. He has studied at Brevard Community College in Melbourne, the University of Florida, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He has traveled extensively and served proudly with the U.S. Navy in Viet Nam. Mr. Wilson now lives with his wife and family in Melbourne, Florida, where he spends his time writing, working and worshiping with friends, all with a thankful heart.

Tropical Storm Tony (2012)

Tropical Storm Tony (2012)

Storm Active: October 22-25

A tropical wave formed in association with an area of disturbed weather accompanying an upper-level low about midway between the western coast of Africa and the Lesser Antilles on October 18. This interaction sporadically produced concentrated thunderstorm activity as it moved to the northwest over the next several days.

Atmospheric conditions improved markedly on October 21, and allowed the system to organize rapidly into Tropical Depression Nineteen on October 22. The cyclone began to curve towards the northeast later that day, as a front approached from the west. By late on October 23, convection had developed close enough to the center of circulation that the cyclone was upgraded to Tropical Storm Tony.

Despite shear from the front to its west, Tony experienced modest strengthening as it accelerated to the east-northeast, and the storm reached its peak intensity of 50 mph winds and a pressure of 1000 mb on October 24. Meanwhile, Tony was beginning to exhibit nontropical characteristics; the banding features became more linear, and the circulation elongated. The transition was very gradual, however, and the system remained a tropical storm through October 25, at which time it lost any remaining tropical characteristics and was downgraded to a remnant low.



Tony as a moderate tropical storm moving rapidly to the northeast over the Central Atlantic.



Track of Tony.

Elegant Simplicity - Geometry