‘The annual carbon emissions from the residential LPG sector could be slashed by 83% by 2025 if heating was switched to biopropane’ says a new report published today by the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA). The report entitled ‘Biopropane for the off-grid sector’ considers the impact that introducing biopropane, a green gas, would have on carbon emissions and homeowners alike.
Isaac Occhipinti, head of external affairs at EUA, said: “There are currently 171,000 homes in the UK using LPG for heating, if this was replaced by biopropane then carbon emissions would be slashed. Biopropane is a highly environmentally friendly and renewable product.
“A further benefit of biopropane is that it directly replaces LPG, meaning homeowners would not have to change or upgrade their heating system. There would be no upfront cost involved, unlike installing other renewable heating systems. Biopropane could be rolled out to off grid homes with minimal disruption and minimal fuss.
“We will also be asking the government to consider including biopropane in the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to incentivise uptake. Our analysis shows that if given an incentive to make the change cost neutral to the consumer, then biopropane could save taxpayers approximately 40% on the current cost of delivering the RHI.”
Biopropane is derived from production processes that use a variety of biological materials as a feedstock, organic plant material, vegetable oil and animal fats; as opposed to traditional LPG which comprises of propane or butane which are produced as a by-product of crude oil-refining and natural gas processing. Using biopropane prevents further depletion of finite fossil fuels and is a low carbon fuel since growing the feedstock used in its production removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.