It is easy to think that there is nothing you
can really do about the environment. However, the world is made
up of individuals, and the environment is determined by our
individual decisions, and each decision is an example which
affects the decisions of others. Our approach determines whether
we leave the world in a better or worse shape for our descendants.
Some aspects of our decisions are not as obvious
as they may seem. It is easy to become confused by the way the
terms efficiency, renewable resources and pollution are used
in the context of their effect on the environment. To a greater
or lesser extent, these issues are intermingled.
Efficiency
This is how well or how effectively we use the energy available
from a fuel. There are two aspects to this - how much energy
we get for the money we pay our supplier (which is very important
when it comes to balancing the books!) and secondly, how well
we use the resource we are given. From an environmental viewpoint,
if we do not use a fuel efficiently, we generate more "greenhouse"
gases than we need to. LPG and Natural Gas have significant
advantages in this respect - because they burn cleanly and because
the combustion products (exhaust gases) which arise are not
aggressive, very high efficiencies (close to 100%) may be obtained.
What is not so obvious is that electricity, which enjoys a very
high conversion efficiency within your home, is not necessarily
efficient from an overall viewpoint - there are considerable
losses in the generation of electricity at power stations and
also in it's distribution.
Renewable resources
Some resources take millions of years to evolve, and ultimately
this means they cannot be created as fast as they are used -
gold, natural diamonds, oil, petrol and gas all fall into this
category. In the context of the environment, the issue is whether
we are going to use up our energy resources and leave none for
our descendants. LPG again has an advantage here - it comes
from both oil and gas reserves.
Pollution
This is generating substances that are harmful to us as human
beings or are harmful to the environment. There are two separate
aspects that arise in the discussion of pollution - greenhouse
gases and inherently "nasty" substances. Greenhouse
gases are minimised by the efficient use of the fuel, and LPG
is a winner in this respect. In addition LPG burns cleanly,
giving off Carbon Dioxide and water vapour. More harmful by-products
are notable by their absence. The reason for this and what distinguishes
LPG from other fuels is that it is essentially a simple substance
- butane and/or propane. More complex substances, such as oils,
petrols and solid fuels, can only minimise harmful emissions
by working at an optimum air/fuel ratio, the exact proportion
of which is quite critical. Even at this optimum, because it
is a compromise, harmful emissions may still be generated.
Don't Just Take Our Word For It...
Probably the biggest area of current concern is vehicle emissions,
particularly in urban areas. While both LPG and Natural Gas
have much better emission characteristics than other fuels,
LPG car and truck systems have many benefits over Natural Gas:
