A three-carbon alkane, propane is sometimes derived from other petroleum products during oil or natural gas processing.
When commonly sold as fuel it is also known as liquified petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) and is a mixture of propane with smaller amounts of propylene, butane and butylene, plus ethanethiol as an odorant to allow the normally odorless propane to be smelled. It is used as fuel in cooking on many barbecues and portable stoves and in motor vehicles. Propane powers some buses, forklifts, and taxis and is used for heat and cooking in recreational vehicles and campers. In many rural areas of the US, propane is also used in furnaces, water heaters, laundry dryers, and other heat-producing appliances. Delivery trucks fill up large tanks that are permanently installed on the property (sometimes called pigs) or exchange bottles of propane.
Another use of propane is the application as propellant for aerosol sprays, especially after the ban of CFCs. It is also used as a feedstock for the production of base petrochemicals in steam cracking.
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