What is Propane gas? Propane also goes by the name of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LP Gas, and LPG. Propane gas has a wide application powering homes and businesses worldwide. Being a versatile energy source, it is used in manufacturing, warehousing, agricultural practices, space and water heating, and cooking.
Propane is quite in demand in the industrial sector and used as fuel for Internal combustion engines like cars, forklifts, buses, irrigation pumps, fleet vehicles, and farm engines. Propane autogas is used to fuel vehicles. Propane is used in significant amount by manufacturing industries, warehouses, agricultural drying, metal melting, and printing press.
Propane is a byproduct of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is safe, powerful, colorless, clean, and virtually orderless. With the advancement in technology, Propane applications have witnessed a surge and may continue to grow in the future.
5 Industrial Uses of Propane
Propane is popular in the industrial sector for being clean, reliable, abundant, and affordable. These very attributes set it apart from conventional fuels, Gasoline and Diesel. Industries, where propane serves a great deal, are mentioned above, let’s know more about them.
Manufacturing Industry
Propane gas is used in many manufacturing facilities for being a reliable and valuable power source. The list is quite long when it comes to Propane applications in the manufacturing sector. It is used to power vehicles, engines, and generators. Companies are using Propane to manufacture plastic, acts as a refrigerant in refrigerators, and more.
Warehouses
Many warehouses have been using Propane-powered forklifts and other equipment to carry out material handling operations. Reportedly, 500,000 forklift trucks are being powered by Propane in America. Apart from indoor forklift operations, it is used in space heaters as well.
Agricultural Drying
Propane is used in a variety of agricultural practices like crop drying, flame weeding, and irrigation pumps, however, predominantly for crop drying. Propane gas is used to fuel many crop drying tools such as hay dryers, corn dryers, tobacco dryers, soybean dryers, and peanut dryers.
Metal Melting
Propane, being a powerful energy source is used for metal melting, no surprises there. It burns at temperatures as high as 1980 °C. Propane is used to fuel stationary and tilting crucible furnaces to melt aluminum, bronze, brass, and other metals. It also heats furnaces that melt silver and gold for making jewelry.
Printing Press
Propane is used for the ink drying process. During large-scale printing, the printing ink needs to be dried immediately to waste no time. Printing companies ask Propane for help to facilitate the ink drying process. Hot Propane gas is used to dry ink on paper, glassine, cellophane, and aluminum foil. Also, it lends a helping hand in burning off printing paper rolls.
Putting it all together, it is hard to summarize Propane applications and demand in just a few words. Apart from the above-mentioned industrial uses, Propane is revolutionizing many industrial applications like car thawing, air heating, cloth drying, and galvanizing. It is safe to say, as the technology develops, so does the Propane applications.
