What is LPG?

LPG stands for Liquefied petroleum Gas (also called LPG, LP Gas, or autogas). Wikipedia defines it as "a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to the ozone layer."

LPG is a byproduct of the petroleum industry and is manufactured during the refining of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas streams as they emerge from the ground. So whilst LPG does produce around 20% less emissions than standard diesel and petrol powered engines, it's still very much a fossil fuel.

I'm not knocking anyone who chooses to use LPG. It's price alone (unusually less than half the price of petrol at the pump) is enough of a bonus, and 20% less emissions is still a good result. Unfortunately LPG can only be used on Petrol engines (not diesel) after a conversion process, so it's no good for my car.

Biodiesel, Vegetable Oil or LPG?

There's no real comparison as Biodiesel and Vegetable OIl run in diesel engines and LPG runs in Petrol engines. If, however, we were to ignore this rather blatant fact and compare purely fiscal and environmental factors, how would it look?

	LPG	Biodiesel	Veg OIl
Fuel Cost	Least expensive	Slightly cheaper than standard diesel	Cheaper than Biodiesel
Sustainable	No	Yes	Yes
Fossil Fuel Content	Most of it	A small part	None
Emissions	20% than standard petrol engine, but still high	Some, but better than diesel	Few, the best of the bunch

So you can see, as a green fuel LPG is sort of okay... it's not necessarily good, but it's not as bad as an average petrol engine.

Useful LPG Links

If you've got a petrol engine in your vehicle and want to save money and do a bit of good for the environment, then give serious consideration to a LPG Conversion. Here's a few links that might help.

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