Propane Advantages: Availability, Portability, and Flexibility

Jim Crouse, President and CEO of Capstone Engineered Solutions, and Bert Warner, Director of Commercial Business Development at the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), shared at POWERGEN 2025 the advantages and specifics of propane-powered machinery, its availability via widespread transportation infrastructures, and how it compares to alternative/traditional fuels.

TURBO: What advantages do propane-powered turbomachines have over traditional, natural gas-fired power generation?

Crouse: Propane is a great fuel because of its ease-of-storage, portability, and ease to refill. We’d see it as a replacement for diesel, where we could include a propane storage and supply system with a turbine or engine. This makes it easy for customers to deploy and use the technology, almost as easy or as easy as using or renting a diesel generator set.

TURBO: Are there examples of large-scale propane-fired options that use turbomachinery? If so, what are they and how do they work?

Crouse: We’ve done several large-scale multi-MW projects in places like Fiji with Fiji Water. In the Caribbean, there’s a number of propane liquefied petroleum gas-fired combined heat-and-power systems. We also have smaller systems in the hundreds of kW’s—these are readily available as well.

TURBO: On the supply side, how does propane’s availability and transportation infrastructure compare to natural gas, ammonia, or hydrogen?

Warner: Propane’s flexibility is that you can have it delivered wherever you want. You aren’t beholden to where the existing lines are, and you can create your own pathway for deliver. It’s overly abundant and we’ve got more of it than we could ever use. The fact that we can take it and transport it anywhere gives propane a great advantage.