WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Propane Education & Research Council recently hosted an online panel to discuss the future of U.S. agriculture and energy industries, as well as the unique benefits panelists see that propane-powered equipment offers U.S. producers.

“As producers across the country begin to focus more on environmental concerns or meeting stricter emissions requirements, we felt this was a very important conversation to have,” said Mike Newland, the council’s director of agriculture business development, in the panel discussion originally shared as part of the recent 2021 virtual World Ag Expo. 

“Propane has several key advantages over other energy sources, some of which producers might already be familiar with, but others they might not,” he said. 

Newland joined California-based almond Grower Alex Adams, and the council’s Director of Technical Communications Jeremy Wishart, who served as the panel moderator, to address questions and concerns from U.S. producers, including Adams’ own experience using propane on his farm, and why these panelists think propane is a leader in the clean energy revolution. 

“I think we also have a great story when you start looking at it from a consumer standpoint,” Newland told virtual attendees. “Back in 1990, (with) the Clean Air Act of 1990, propane was made and approved as an alternative fuel. I think most consumers would not know that. 

“I think that’s very important that the government had trust in us all the way back into the early ‘90s because they know our emissions profiles, and know that we are clean,” he added.

According to the council, propane produces 43 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using an equivalent amount of electricity generated from the U.S. grid system, 24 percent fewer emissions than gasoline, and 11 percent fewer emissions than diesel engines.  

Newland said the biggest thing throughout the Midwest drying grain with propane. 

“Other things have a more national use: irrigation engines, generators, water heating systems for the farm as well,” he said. “When we start thinking organics, we start talking about flame weed control systems. 

“We start using propane to disrupt the growth and self-development in weeds, and we can control weeds with tools in that regard,” he added. “We also do some other things with heat. We have a category called agronomic heat systems that also plays into that organic space.”

Discussing what he referred to as the reliability and resiliency of propane, he said, “I’ve not yet a farmer who doesn’t like to control his own destiny. I think it really gets back to farmers getting to run their farms how they want to, on the schedule they want to, and not being dictated by regulations, or peak pricing as to how they really have to from an economics standpoint.”

Adams’ entire farm operation is propane-driven

Adams said his farm operation started using propane on a test program in 2015.

“We put it on a deep well turbine,” he said. “Ran it for about six months. I was so impressed with it that we switched our operations over between three different ranches, and added five more power units that essentially drove everything.  

He said one of the issues California especially is facing right now is when “the wind blows a little bit, the power goes off.” 

That’s why he said he has gone from an irrigation standpoint, “to all of my residencies and vacation homes all having backup power tied in, and it’s all propane-driven.”

“From the aspect of fuel containment, you don’t have to contain it,” he said. “You don’t have the theft issue with it that you do with diesel fuel disappearing, or getting dumped. It doesn’t go bad like diesel does. It doesn’t grow bacteria, so it’s been a very phenomenal experience for me. The cost saving alone on the power side of it was tremendous.” 

“I had one place, at the time, we were seven cents a kilowatt hour,” he said. “Propane can beat that. So propane has its place. Propane works. Between five different power units, the only thing I’ve ever lost was the alternator, and that was because the battery failed. It had nothing to do with the engines.”

He added, “Between the three different ranches, it is 120 acres. If I put it all together, on average, we’re running about 3,800 pounds per acre. The propane in the engine systems give you an ability to have an infinitely variable drive system, so you can speed up that water. 

“You can slow that water down, you can isolate it in a box if you need to where you have different soil textures before the ground changes if you need to apply more water in one area, turn it off, or apply less. 

“It gives you a very flexible system that’s you’re not going to get without a mass investment in some type of valving, or some kind of automated system that’s going to manage that side of it for you,” he said.

Newland said, “I don’t think we can rely on all electric for the farm, and think we can pull that off in 10 years.”   

“The message today is propane is a clean thing,” he said. “We need the regulations and the requirements today. (But) we don’t have peak pricing concerns. We give folks the ability back to control their own farm and their own acres, which I think is awesome.

“(The council) has even done studies across the electric grid, looking at how much emissions are put off by producing that electricity that folks allege is clean, how much emissions are put off, and comparing our propane emissions to that grid power, and we win that conversation in comparison,” he added.

“I’ve had people call me, ‘Hey, our power is out,” he said. “’How are you still running your sprinklers?’ ‘Well, my power source didn’t drop off the grid; it’s doing its thing, and everything runs along.’ 

“So there are a lot of positive benefits to (propane),” he added. “Not only is it water vapor once it’s burned, you don’t have any of the other issues that you have to deal with.”

He said the message that is needed out in the agriculture community is there are other energy alternatives.

“(Electric) may be clean, compared to other fuels, but there are alternatives out there today, and they’re better than that, so I think propane has a place,” he said. “The regulation part of it is one thing, and we do what we can there. We have other folks working on the regulators a little bit, having those conversations as to why we should be included in any policy going forward. 

“So we’re excited about it,” he added. “We think we’ve got a great story, and we think we have an opportunity if we’re able to tell that story – and we think the best way to do that is to continue talking to our end users, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

For more information on propane, visit: www.propane.com.