LPG Applications
Although liquid petroleum gas (LPG) is most commonly used as a vehicle fuel it also has a multitude of other equally impressive uses. With recent developments in the fields of refrigeration and propulsion seeing LPG being used as a replacement for the chlorofluorocarbons that have now been banned (they were determined as one of the causes for the hole in the ozone layer that developed in the 1990s), it seems that the sky is indeed the limit for the many alternative uses of LPG.
Heating And Cooking
One of the most basic uses of liquid petroleum gas in a domestic sense is for heating and cooking. In many developing nations, LPG is seen as being a more reliable source of fuel for cooking, especially when the electricity supply might be expensive or intermittent. Small portable stoves fed by LPG canisters are incredibly popular. Such portable devices are also widely used in the United Kingdom, though more often than not they are the cooking device that is taken on a camping or caravanning trip rather than the sole source of fuel for domestic cooking.
In a similar manner, LPG can be used as a fuel for heating and lighting, both temporarily (portable for camping or for electricity black-outs) or permanently (for water and space heating). Popular in remote and rural areas as a form of back-up in emergencies, LPG can easily be stored in large quantities (ideally underground or in a specialized tank) for small communities.
Renewables Back-Up
Increasingly liquid petroleum gas is also being used as a fuel for supplementing renewable energy sources. Because solar power, wind power and hydro power are not always reliable - especially if they are small-scale - it pays to have a back-up fuel source on hand that is less environmentally harmful than oil, coal or diesel. For solar water heating and solar space heating in particular, liquid petroleum gas back-up supply can be especially effective.
Syngas
It is also worth noting that a further development that has seen the creation of a whole new fuel - synthetic gas, often known simply as Syngas - is linked inextricably with the fortunes of LPG. As LPG and natural gas are not chemically the same product (natural gas is predominately methane and can be burned for large-scale electricity production, but is said to be slightly more harmful to the environment in terms of carbon emissions and faces an increasingly limited supply), the race has been on to find a way of creating an alternative fuel that can carry out the same tasks that natural gas achieves. By mixing air with LPG, the Syngas is created - it is clean and efficient enough to replace natural gas and can reputedly be pumped through the gas mains that supply our homes and businesses.