What is LPG Fuel and How Does It Work?

Hello dear readers, nice to see you again in my blog post. I will talk about LPG(Liquefied Petroleum Gas) fuel for automobiles. LPG is gas but when it is exposed to pressure, this gas can turn into liquid. It can be stored, packaged and transported easily, those are the advantages of LPG. Actually, there are different types of fuel types for automobiles but when we talk about only popular ones we can array them as Gasoline, Diesel fuel, Electric and LPG. LPG was used to start automobiles in the 1930s. Actually, there was some political strategy under this project because some countries wanted to reduce their fuel addiction rate and they decided to find some alternative fuels for their automobiles. Germany pioneered this fuel transformation movement and they supported these alternative fuel projects until the Second World War terms. After this war, The Netherlands and Italy were pioneers in this LPG development process. If we evaluate Eurostat’s data about an investigation LPG using rate in the world, Turkiye is the leader in using LPG systems in Europe also Poland and Italy are following Turkiye in this list. If you wonder which country the leader is in using LPG fuel in the world, the answer is South Korea, South Korea is the leader who uses this fuel system in the world. LPG has a lot of advantages, especially when we compare LPG and gasoline or diesel fuel, LPG is very useful for the environment and nature. LPG became popular after the 1990s actually if we have some doubts about LPG, these problems can come from the first LPG initiatives. Some cars had a carburetor, and they had a lot of problems with LPG fuel because these systems are not so appropriate for LPG systems. We could not find good traction and performance from these cars but when the engine systems developed and we meet injection systems, LPG destiny changed at the same time. LPG has 110 octane number and when we use it with high compression we can find good performance from this fuel. If we use LPG, we can spend more liters than gasoline but there is no problem because LPG is cheaper than gasoline and this situation can eliminate this problem because drivers generally want to use cheaper fuels for their cars and it is the main answer why people want to use LPG in their cars. We can spend 20% between 30% more liters of LPG than gasoline fuel according to engine volume. Because gasoline unit energy worth is higher than LPG. If we can use 10 liters of gasoline and 10 liters of LPG at the same time in the same model cars. We will not find the same yield because gasoline will be more advantageous than LPG because it has a high unit energy quantity. However when we compare these fuels unit prices definitely LPG will be totally cheaper than gasoline because LPG unit price is cheaper than gasoline. Consequently, Turkish people use the LPG system because of low fuel prices but probably LPG will lose its advantages in the next months because of high energy prices at gas stations. There was only one difference between LPG and gasoline systems, former LPG systems could not be so effective because these old model cars should disclaim their performance because LPG fuel will affect their car performance, unfortunately.

Why Does LPG Have Notoriety?

There are a lot of superstitions about LPG due to Its first initiative for old cars which have a carburetor system. These types of old cars are not appropriate for the LPG system and if we evaluate the age of cars which are located in Turkiye. TUIK explained the average of cars in Turkiye is 14.5 years. It means LPG should have notoriety in Turkiye or other countries which have similar situations like Turkiye. If we want to convert our cars from gasoline to LPG, firstly will drill the intake manifold and will add 4 new LPG injectors in this place. The system will integrate LPG’s ECU and both systems will work together. When we start our car, it will work firstly with gasoline and when LPG will reach enough temperature this system can pass from gasoline to LPG manually or automatically. Gasoline has a natural greasing system but LPG fuel does not have this system. LPG is a dry fuel system and this problem can affect our engine pieces that are located in the combustion chamber. Such as intake and exhaust valves, piston and piston rings. If we can use LPG fuel, this piece’s lifetime will be short definitely. Old cars can use steel valves and this material is available for high temperatures but new cars are using new and light materials and they could not be appropriate for LPG systems. If we want to save our valves, piston and piston rings lifetime we should use some valve care system or we should change them periodically. There is only one difference between gasoline and LPG and it is related to this dry fuel problem. Technology has been developing for these systems and Bosch has been producing special injectors for cars that use LPG systems. LPG systems will be more useful for people in the next years even some car makers are presenting LPG selections for their customers such as the Honda brand. Probably you will ask this question can we use LPG for our diesel engines? Yes sure but it is named not LPG it is name CNG(Compressed Natural Gas) and this system is very popular with buses that are used for transportation in countries. This system can use diesel fuel and CNG mixture and generally governments have been supporting this system in their transportation studies because CNG and LPG are cleaner than gasoline or diesel engine. These systems are friendly to the environment and they have lower emissions than gasoline and diesel fuels.

How We Can Find Good Performance From LPG

Automobile technology has been improving more and more and this LPG technology will improve at the same time. Some LPG technology brands such as Prins from the Netherlands, Tartarini from Italy and Atiker or BRC from Turkiye try to solve these common problems. New gasoline engine cars generally use the direct injection principle and firstly we should use these injectors or other injectors which are produced only for these LPG systems. Generally problems are related to LPG connections and injectors because injectors can be congested and engines can not produce high performance due to these problems. Good brand, correct product and high quality mounting process could reduce all problems for our cars. Firstly LPG should reach the ideal temperature to work without gas temperature problems. If this gas can not reach the appropriate temperature stage we can face some problems regarding low performance and vibrations. We should save our engine pieces such as piston, intake valve, exhaust valve and piston rings because LPG is a dry fuel and these engine pieces can erode easily. We should use durable materials which can resist these erosion problems instead of our original engine parts or we can use a valve care system to protect them. If we can realize some problems with our cars we should first check our gasoline engine to find problems if the gasoline engine does not have any problems it is mean the main problem comes from these LPG systems. If we pay attention to these rules, we can get yield from LPG systems. If I talk about my country, Turkiye has 40% LPG system using rate currently. It means we can see plenty of problems with these cars because of the ratio of the old cars. This problem affected LPG systems’ reputation here, but ıf we can use good brands and get some precautions we can get benefits at the same time from these systems.

I hope you can find helpful information about LPG systems from this blog posting, this topic is very popular in my country and I wanted to write about this system. I know the automotive industry is changing towards electric cars but these LPG, gasoline or diesel fuel cars will be alive for a long time. We dont have a magic wand and they will not change suddenly when we touch them with this magic wand. I still try to absorb conventional automobile systems and I want to know them with comprehensive proficiency. There is no limit to learning something and we should be interested in something according to the structures of our countries.

Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.

– Walt Whıtman