Andrea Arzà, managing director of Liquigas Italy and board member of Liquigas Malta, talks about efforts to encourage the use of clean liquefied petroleum gas.
How do you see the future of LPG in Europe?
LPG has a considerable role today and for the foreseeable future as a transitional solution towards renewables. People and businesses can reduce pollution immediately by switching from carbon-intensive fuels like oil to LPG today. It is clean, available now and does not need major financial support by governments.
The European and national authorities strongly support and incentivise renewable energies, in particular for the transport sector. Do you see a future for LPG in competition with electricity or LNG for cars, trucks or maritime transport?
It is true that there is a strong movement of thought in favour of electric mobility, but if we look at things from the point of view of the scientific Life Cycle Assessment (*), LPG today still represents the best solution in terms of costs and environmental impact for different transport segments.
What are the challenges LPG operators have to face today?
Definitely, there are many challenges, but these also represent several opportunities. On one side, we must firmly tackle all forms of illegality lurking inside the value chain link. On the other, the LPG industry ought to make a significant effort to present more information to users so that the qualities and advantages of LPG are known to all, and not only to those directly involved in the industry.
What do you expect from the national authorities in relation to this sector?
I anticipate the time when national authorities take energy policy decisions based on scientific data and industry knowledge, rather than as a result of some radical emotions lobbied by certain environmental groupings.
What are the new applications of LPG as a clean source of energy in the industrial, agricultural and transport sectors?
Rather than identifying new applications, it is more important to focus on how the improvement in performance of new equipment in the various industrial, agricultural and transport sectors using LPG can bring about a reduction of emissions of climate-altering gases and particulate matter emissions from vehicles using fuel that are polluting the air in our cities.
(*) Known as Life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis, LCA is a technique that assesses environmental impacts associated with all the phases of a product’s life from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling.