100 percent propane

[benji]

I found a place in Bendigo the other day that sells pure propane out of an lpg pump. 77cpl.

It runs a lot smoother, and quite a lot more torque. It hasn't really effected economy yet, but ive only done 50k.

I should point out I've got an lpg chip in the GEMS to advance further than the standard ignition map, so others might see different results.

[stuee]

You'll find in winter that you often purchase straight propane from servo's as LPG, apart from the stench (Ethyl Mercaptan) added to give it a noticeable smell. During the colder months butane can be blended into normal petrol (make more money from adding it to petrol over LPG), come summer time though its usually directed to automix LPG as it raises the volatility of petrol too much. This may only apply if your LPG is sourced from an oil refinery.

If its processed from natural gas that may not be the case, but butane on its own isn't really used in many places so I'd be surprised if they didn't include it in automotive LPG too. I gather propane is worth more than butane too so its unusual to be distributed on its own if there's an opportunity to blend in something with it and sell it for the same amount.

[DeeJay]

I've worked for an LPG distributer for 25 + years now, a few things --

Butane is used extensively in industry, especially abattoirs, gold mines, cotton gins etc, criteria being they can take a semi trailer load at a time. Australia exports 95% & get a good $$ for it. Currently Butane cost is around Propane cost, it has cost more recently, depends on supply & demand. In fact it is blended most of the time regardless of cost due to the fact it is a commercial product and has an extensive market.

If your vehicle runs better on "pure" propane, then get it properly tuned next time you have had a couple of autogas fills ( usually 50% propane 50% butane) under your belt.. A car tuned for autogas will run as well as well and as economically as one tuned for propane.

Cheers, David