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Propane

Propane is a colorless, flammable, liquefied gas.

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Propane

Formula: C₃H₈, R290

Propane’s main uses include home and water heating, cooking and refrigerating food, clothes drying, and powering farm and industrial equipment. The chemical industry also uses propane as a raw material for making plastics and other compounds. Discovered in 1857 by the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot, it became commercially available in the US by 1911.

Propane (C₃H₈) is one of a group of liquefied petroleum gases (LP gases). Propane has a lower energy density but burns more cleanly than gasoline and coal. It is also used as fuel for small engines, especially those used indoors or in areas with insufficient fresh air and ventilation to carry away the more toxic exhaust of an engine running on gasoline or diesel fuel.

Compared to fluorocarbons, propane has a negligible ozone depletion potential and very low global warming potential (having a value of only 3.3 times the GWP of carbon dioxide) and can serve as a functional replacement for R-12, R-22, R-134a, and other chlorofluorocarbon or hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants in conventional stationary refrigeration and air conditioning systems. Because its global warming effect is far less than current refrigerants, propane was chosen as one of five replacement refrigerants approved by the EPA in 2015, for use in systems specially designed to handle its flammability.

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Applications
Specifications
Further Specifications
Cylinder Sizes
  • Widely used as a fuel for suburban home heating systems and gas appliances
  • Used a fuel for intraplant trucking
  • Used as a refrigerant gas and as a thermobulb fill for temperature and pressure control instruments
  • As a low temperature extraction solvent
  • Used as a refrigerant in chemical, petroleum refining, and gas processing operation
  • As a selective solvent for removing asphaltic components from the higher-boiling fractions of crude oils
Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 3.5 Grade 4 Grade 4.5 Grade 5
Purity 99.0% 99.9% 99.95% 99.99% 99.995% 99.999%
Nitrogen < 800 ppmv < 100 ppmv < 30 ppmv < 10 ppmv < 5 ppmv < 2 ppmv
Oxygen < 200 ppmv < 25 ppmv < 10 ppmv < 2 ppmv < 1 ppmv < 1 ppmv
Carbon Dioxide < 200 ppmv < 20 ppmv < 10 ppmv < 2 ppmv < 2 ppmv < 1 ppmv
Propylene < 800 ppmv < 200 ppmv < 50 ppmv < 10 ppmv < 10 ppmv < 2 ppmv
Other Hydrocarbons < 9,000 ppmv < 900 ppmv < 400 ppmv < 80 ppmv < 40 ppmv < 8 ppmv
Moisture < 10 ppmv < 5 ppmv < 5 ppmv < 3 ppmv < 3 ppmv < 2 ppmv
Total Impurities < 1% < 1,000 ppmv < 500 ppmv < 100 pmv < 50 ppmv < 10 ppmv
Chemical & Physical Properties
Molecular Weight 44.1
Specific Volume 8.5 cf/lb
Pressure @ 70° F 109 psig
Flammability Limits 2.1 - 9.5% in Air
Valve Outlet CGA 510 LB CGA 170
Shipping Information
DOT Name Propane
Hazard Class 2.1
DOT No. UN 1978
DOT Label Flammable Gas
CAS No. 74-98-6
Cylinder Size Fill Weight (lb)
1/2 Ton 420
LP30 100
LP15 50
LP05 20
LP01 5
49L/Size 300 45
44L/Size 200 40
16L/Size 80 14
7L/Size 35 6

**Moisture level guaranteed only when Electronic Fluorocarbons prepares the cylinders.
All concentrations are on a mol/mol basis unless otherwise stated.
This product is analyzed liquid phase.

*This gas not available for purchase online.

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