Residential uses
Roughly 12 million US households use propane, ~5 million as primary heating fuel. Residential applications:
- Space heating — furnaces and boilers (the dominant residential load)
- Water heating — tank and tankless
- Cooking — ranges and ovens
- Clothes drying — gas dryers
- Backup generators — propane's shelf life beats gasoline
- Fireplaces — vented and ventless
- Outdoor — grills, patio heaters, fire pits, pool heaters
Agricultural uses
- Crop drying — corn, soybeans, rice, peanuts (huge seasonal demand)
- Livestock building heat — poultry brooders, hog barns, dairy operations
- Irrigation engines — propane-fueled pumps
- Greenhouses — supplemental CO2 and heat
- Weed flame control — organic farming alternative to herbicides
Commercial and industrial
- Forklifts — most US indoor industrial forklifts run on propane (clean exhaust for indoor air quality)
- Construction — temporary heat, roofing torches, concrete curing
- Restaurants — cooking where natural gas isn't piped
- Food trucks — cooking power source
- Industrial heat — process heating, metal cutting, glass production
Transportation
- School buses — ~22,000 propane school buses in US service (PERC data 2024)
- Light fleet vehicles — taxis, delivery vans, government fleets
- Some passenger vehicles — niche aftermarket conversions
Export
The US has been the world's largest propane exporter since the mid-2010s shale boom. Major export destinations: Asia (Japan, China, India), Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, UK), Latin America. Exports compete with domestic demand for inventory, supporting prices even in mild US winters.
FAQ
What's the largest US propane use?
Export now exceeds any single domestic use category. Among domestic uses: residential heating remains the largest aggregate share in winter; petrochemical feedstock (for plastics and ethylene production) is the largest year-round industrial demand.
Is propane used in transportation fuel?
Limited but real. School buses, fleet vehicles and forklifts are the main propane motor-fuel applications. Light passenger-vehicle propane is rare in the US, more common in Europe.