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Alternative Fuels for Motor Vehicles

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

Propane is produced as a by-product of natural gas processing and crude oil refining and is readily available to the general public; LPG produces fewer vehicle emissions than gasoline and the infrastructure for distributing and handling the product is already present. These points are major advantages.

There are more than 3,000 propane-fueling stations in the United States and there are over 115,000 vehicles on British roads using LPG as a fuel. Many service stations also sell Autogas as it is called in the UK.

The major suppliers in the UK include Shell, BP, Calor and Flogas.

In terms of price the fuel in the UK works out at around half the Gasoline price and because it is efficient as a fuel has a running cost of around 40% that of Gasoline. The UK and USA tax LPG relatively lightly. The environmental impact is low when compared to petroleum fuels, with lower emissions of Carbon dioxide and also much less of the damaging toxic compounds such as Benzene. According to research in Europe, LPG vehicles emit 20% LESS carbon dioxide than their petrol counterparts. Carbon dioxide, nitric oxides and particulates are key contributors to problems like poor air quality and global warming. The same investigation discovered that LPG is much cleaner than diesel when it comes to Nitric Oxides - it would, in fact, take around 20 LPG cars to produce as much Nitric Oxides as is pumped out by just one diesel-powered car.

All in all it makes LPG a very attractive alternative fuel:

  • It is fairly readily available.
  • It is cheaper than Gasoline to run as a fuel.
  • Emissions are lower.
  • The retrofitting industry is widespread and organised.

Without wishing to appear to be overselling this fuel, it seems that LPG is the most realistic short/medium term alternative to Gasoline/Petrol powered engines. Additionally, even when compared with the relatively lower running costs of Diesel-fuelled vehicles there is a case for opting for LPG units when replacing vehicles.

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