What is the future for LPG?

The LPG industry has an appetite for growth and is building up its workforce, improving infrastructure, expanding into new and existing markets, and making large levels of investment to develop indigenous production of renewable fuels here in the UK.

Companies have invested over £260 million to date in developing and bringing renewable liquid gases including bioLPG and rDME to market. During the transition to renewable liquid gases LPG will remain a valuable part of the low carbon energy mix.

LPG is suited to many of the highly efficient new technologies coming onto the market including LPG heat pumps (18kW), fuel cell micro combined heat and power (mCHP), engine mCHP, boiler plus solar thermal, boiler plus flue gas heat recovery (FGHR) and boiler plus controls, which will further deliver improvements in energy efficiency and environmental performance, both in homes and in businesses. 

BioLPG, otherwise known as biopropane has almost identical chemical and physical characteristics to those of LPG. BioLPG is classed as a “drop-in fuel” which means both products can co-exisit and mix together in the same tank using the same supply infrastructure, and not requiring adaptation or retrofit to tanks and equipment already installed.

BioLPG is renewable and sustainable, and can be made in several ways using different technologies and thermal or chemical processes. For example, bioLPG is often a co-product of sustainable aviation fuel production or through gasification processes.

Feedstocks for bioLPG include cooking oil, animal fat, vegetable oil, waste, plant dry matter, sugar and starch. Research by bioenergy experts NNFCC found a sustainable switch to bioLPG by 2040 is feasible.

Please click here to read more on bioLPG.