Liquefied Petroleum Gas

Definition
LPG - liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum gas – (LP gas), the constituents of
which are propane and butane, are flammable hydrocarbon fuel gases used for LPG
heating, cooking and vehicles.

What is LPG Made Up Of?

LPG is mixture of flammable hydrocarbon gases that include propane, butane,
isobutane and mixtures of the three LPG gases. LPG is commonly used for home
heating gases, cooking, hot water, and autogas – fuel for LPG cars and vehicles.

Where Does LPG Come From?

LPG gas comes from oil and gas wells, as it is a fossil fuel. LPG gas manufacturing
process includes natural gas processing and the crude oil refinery process.

How is LPG Made? What is the Production Process?

 LPG is made during natural gas processing and oil refining.
 LPG is separated from unprocessed natural gas using refrigeration.
 LPG is extracted from heated crude oil using a distillation tower.
 It is stored pressurised, as a liquid, in cylinders or tanks.

What is LPG Used For?

LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) is used in your home, including cooking, heating, hot
water, autogas, aerosol propellant, air conditioning refrigerant and back-up generator
applications. LPG used in your home is typically supplied in 45kg LPG gas bottles.

Advantages of LPG
 It contains very less amount of carbon in it, hence LPG powered vehicles
produce almost 50% less CO2 than petrol.
 It mixes with air at all temperatures.
 It provides a uniform charge for combustion, in case of multi cylinder engine.
 It has very high compression ratios.
 Researches proves that Using It saves almost 50% of cost than petrol.
 The engine may have 50% longer life.

Disadvantages of LPG
 It produces 10% less power, compared to petrol, on the same engine.
 An efficient cooling system is required.
 Due to heavy cylinders, used to store LPG, weight of the engine gets
increased considerably.
 A special fuel feed system is required for it.
 Compressed Natural Gas

What is CNG?

CNG stands for compressed natural gas. Natural gas is predominantly methane
which is stored at high pressure and is used by many people for cooking and heating
in their homes. Like petrol and diesel it is a fossil fuel but burns much cleaner. The
result of this is greatly reduced vehicle emissions.

How to use it?

Natural gas is compressed from the normal gas supply pipeline and is stored in a car
at a pressure of 200bar in a cylinder specially designed for the purpose. From there
it is fed to the spark ignition engine which will have been slightly modified to use the
fuel. Most cars that run on CNG are also able to run on petrol and are termed bi fuel
cars.

Advantages of CNG
 Environment Friendly.
 CNG is cheaper than petrol and LPG.
 Ease of Use and Flexibility, Car runs on both CNG and Petrol.
 It requires less lubrication.

Disadvantages of CNG

 CNG Gas stations have limited availability.

 CNG tank requires need large space and it is heavy. So it affects reliability
and car performance.
 High initial CNG gas kit Cost.
 High risk of explosion.

CNG vs. LPG

CNG is Compressed Natural Gas, which is mainly methane compressed at a
pressure of 200 to 248 bars. LPG is Liquefied Petroleum Gas, a mixture of propane
and butane liquefied at 15 °C and a pressure of 1.7 - 7.5 bar. Some variants of LPG
are primarily propane so LPG is often colloquially called propane. CNG is cheaper
and cleaner, but LPG has a higher calorific value. Distribution is easier for natural
gas over long distances via pipelines.
 CNG versus LPG comparison chart

CNG LPG

Constituents Methane Propane and Butane

Source Obtained from natural gas- Automatically generated from gas fields
and-condensate wells, oil when natural gas is extracted from the
wells, coal bed methane reservoir. By-product of cracking process
wells. during crude-oil refining.

Uses Substitute for gasoline in Heating and cooking in homes,

automobiles. refrigeration, industrial, agricultural,
catering and automobile fuel.

Environmental Releases lesser Releases CO2 which is a greenhouse gas

effects greenhouse gas. but is cleaner when compared to gasoline.

Properties It is lighter than air and Highly inflammable. It is heavier than air
hence disperses quickly in and on leakage will settle to ground and
the event of spillage. accumulate in low lying areas.

Safety Easily disperses, hence risk Since it is difficult to disperse risk of fire is
of ignition is minimized. more.