Industrial / Commercial

What are the benefits of LPG over other heating fuels?

LPG has several advantages, such as:

• Its clean burning attributes allow it to be used for direct firing of furnaces, and ovens in situations where the products of combustion can effect the quality of the product. For example, crop process drying, food baking, ceramics manufacture.
  
  
• Gas burning equipment requires less maintenance than oil burners.
  
  
• There is no ash generated from LPG as with wood and coal.
  
  
• It is available in a variety of package sizes from small cylinders to bulk quantities delivered direct to the customer.

When should cylinders be grouped together for supply?

Cylinders should be grouped together when the demand from the application is greater than one cylinder alone can supply or when security of supply is a factor. In these cases it is normal to bank cylinders into two groups. Each group being capable of meeting the supply demand from the process. The two groups of cylinders are linked together via an automatic changeover regulator which will maintain the system to the required pressure and swap supply to the heating process from one group of cylinders to the other group, when the first groups of cylinder are empty.

At what stage should LPG users consider moving from cylinder supply to a bulk tank?

This depends very much on the application, the available space, and the supply logistics. In general, it becomes more economic to supply LPG in bulk when the off-take is consistent, and it is clearly cheaper to transport LPG in bulk quantities than in cylinders. In some cases while it would be cheaper to supply the customer's requirement in bulk, the lack of space to store LPG in bulk becomes a factor and supply via cylinders is maintained.

What are vaporisers, and how are they used?

Vaporisers are heat exchangers, which are used to heat the liquid LPG and convert it to a gas. This is the reason that in many situations the off-take is larger than the natural supply rate of a tank or cylinder. Vaporisers are installed to meet the gas demand by the process. Vaporizers can use the heat provided by hot water, electricity or even LPG from the supply tank.