The propane industry’s centennial celebration in Atlanta was a sight to behold. The kickoff event was a parade of propane-fueled vehicles and equipment, including delivery trucks, school buses, police cars, muscle cars, go-carts, forklifts, lawn mowers, and even a drag racer. Hundreds of the industry faithful gathered in Centennial Park snapping photographs with their digital cameras and smartphones as a bagpipe ensemble filled the air with a tune that stirred the soul.
It was a Kodak moment — in more ways than one.
For as long as I can remember, a Kodak moment meant smiling faces huddled together at a special place and time before a bucolic backdrop captured forever in a treasured photographic memento.
From its humble beginnings in 1880, Kodak grew to hold a special place in American life. With the introduction of its Brownie camera, Kodak transformed photography from a cumbersome specialty profession into a ubiquitous consumer hobby available to everyman. For more than a century Kodak was an American business legend, manufacturing cameras, film, and specialty chemicals that worked magic in darkrooms around the planet.
Over time, the marketplace challenged Kodak’s dominance. Other camera makers crowded the shelves with more choices — cameras, specialty lenses, and accessories. Then, the film and photographic papers sectors, where Kodak was the industry standard, saw new entrants that undercut its prices and took big chunks of market share. Still, Kodak was making a fortune, so when its research team decades earlier had discovered digital photography and acquired some of the earliest patents for it, the company didn’t aggressively pursue its own innovation. Surely, someone must have thought, “Let’s not threaten our existing business with this new fangled contraption; let’s focus on protecting what we already have and know best.”
Alas, the marketplace is relentless; it rewards innovation and consumer convenience. Other companies invested heavily in digital photography and in less than a decade swept aside the American legend, even as it struggled in slow-motion courts to protect its original digital image patents. In January of this year, Kodak filed for bankruptcy.
That’s a different Kodak moment. Yet there’s a lesson there.
For the propane industry, that parade of propane equipment and vehicles represents our embrace of innovation in a changing marketplace, our opportunity to free ourselves from overdependence on the weather. In fact, that parade of technology was the tip of the iceberg, as there are more examples of new clean, efficient propane-consuming devices on display at the PERC booth and throughout NPGA’s Southeastern Convention & International Propane Expo.
This is our Kodak moment. The only question is whether, unlike Kodak, we will aggressively pursue our own innovation.
(Photograph courtesy Butane-Propane News)
Propane Autogas Is Still WINNING!
In May, the Department of Energy reported on its vehicle technologies program at a leadership gathering of its Clean Cities coalitions, the grassroots organizations of public and private participants that champion the deployment of alternative-fuel vehicles and refueling infrastructure in nearly 100 cities and regions across the country. (Download the report by clicking “Alternative Fuels Overview” at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/toolbox/presentations.html.)
The report offers insight into why propane autogas remains the nation’s and the world’s leading alternative to gasoline and diesel fuel. Through the end of 2010, almost half of all light-duty vehicles planned for deployment will be fueled by propane autogas. Propane autogas captured nearly 20 percent of the medium- and heavy-duty vehicles planned for deployment, despite the limited number of propane autogas vehicles available in that class when the program kicked off. (More medium-duty propane autogas vehicles are coming soon.) Propane autogas not only chalked up impressive numbers but also deployed more vehicles more quickly than any other alternative fuel. That’s right here, right now.
What about refueling infrastructure? The DOE program clearly made electric vehicle recharging stations its top priority, planning to deploy more than 700 electric vehicle stations. However, plans for autogas refueling infrastructure came in second, with just over 350 refueling stations slated for deployment; that’s more planned stations for propane autogas than for hydrogen, CNG, E85, LNG, and biodiesel combined!
Here’s the winner’s edge: propane autogas achieved those leading statistics with only about 10 percent of the total funding for the entire alternative fuel program. Per dollar spent, propane autogas will deploy more vehicles and more refueling stations than all other dedicated alternative fuels. WINNING!
So what do we get with propane autogas? Here’s what: significantly lower emissions of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and total hydrocarbons. Depending on vehicle and engine type, propane autogas can reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 24 percent. Not to keep piling on, but propane autogas also offers lower maintenance costs than gasoline vehicles, low oil contamination, no cold-start problems, and nearly double the engine life of gasoline engines.
The bottom line is obvious. Propane autogas not only makes economic sense but also delivers more green benefits for fewer greenbacks.
It ain’t bragging if you can do it. — RW