If you use propane in your northern Arizona home, or have refilled the propane BBQ cylinder for your grill at one of Superior Propane’s propane refill stations, you may have wondered about how propane is made, and how it gets to Superior Propane so we can deliver it to your home.
That’s why we’re here today! We’ve put together some information; call it a propane primer, so you can learn more about this versatile fuel source.
Propane is also known as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Chemist Walter O. Snelling first identified propane in 1910 while investigating gasoline evaporation and storage. He discovered that several evaporating gases in gasoline could be converted into liquids, with propane being the most plentiful of those gases. From there, Snelling created a method to bottle the liquid gas and created the propane industry. He held the patent for propane until 1913, when he sold it to Frank Phillips, the founder of Phillips Petroleum, for $50,000. That’s about $1.3 million in today’s money.
Close to 90 percent of the domestic propane supply is created from natural gas processing in the United States and Canada. Liquid components from the processing of natural gas — propane, butane, methane, and ethane — are extracted. When the propane production is complete, the propane is sent to bulk distribution centers by pipelines, tanker ships, trains, trucks, and barges. Distributors then send it to local suppliers like Superior Propane, and we deliver it to you!
Thanks to increasing domestic propane production, the propane supply here is so plentiful that the United States has become a net exporter of propane. That abundance also provides security in our propane supply, regardless of what happens in other countries or in the global oil markets.
Propane is also clean-burning and energy-efficient. You save money on your energy bills while creating less wear on your propane appliances, so you can use them longer. Propane creates much fewer greenhouse gas emissions than other traditional fuels too, so you’re doing better for the Arizona environment we cherish.
Contact us to learn more about our array propane services, and how we can help your home or business, today!
