A smarter approach for storing liquid gas

There are some three billion liquid gas users worldwide.

Liquid gas, or LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) is used in thousands of applications, in commercial businesses, industry, transportation, farming, power generation, cooking, heating and for recreational purposes.

It is particularly valuable in aiding the transition to cleaner cooking and heating in developing countries, where clean energy sources are less available. Bottled liquid gas is cleaner than the more polluting and toxic sources of energy such as wood, charcoal, coal, kerosene and animal waste. Using LPG produces less carbon dioxide than coal, heating oil or petrol, and it emits virtually no black carbon or other particulates that are associated with many indoor cooking fuels.

With a sizeable global market, and a key role in reducing harms and carbon footprint, the LPG sector continues to grow.

Ragasco, a Norwegian company, have been leading the way in developing Composite T4 LPG cylinders since 2000.

Their most recent innovation, the Linktra® Smart cylinder, is a next generation IoT-enabled product that tells users how much gas is left and when they will need to refill. This is done with a novel approach to using the well-established capacitive technology. The sensor itself is patented and the app continues to be developed in close collaboration with the customers.

We caught up with Rune André Bjørnerud, Lead Hardware Engineer at Ragasco, to find out more.

In Conversation: Ragasco

When, and why, did you first start exploring the idea of a smart LPG cylinder?

Back in 2019, we had a vision that we need to “make the cylinder talk” in order to differentiate even further towards our competitor – the steel cylinders. Therefore, we started to explore a composite cylinder that would add additional value to the product and the logistics value chain of our customers.

Composite cylinders are considered a premium product when compared to steel cylinders, being much lighter, safer, and rust free. 

That’s what differentiates the smart cylinder that we’ve now launched.

How has the smart cylinder been received by your customers?

We’ve seen real global interest in the smart cylinder. We export 95% of our cylinders every year.

We had our first launch in Norway with the LPG distributor Linde, formerly known as AGA, and we are looking to expand outside of Scandinavia this year.

What’s interesting is that the smart cylinders have more uses than simply monitoring the amount of gas that is left.

We have seen our smart cylinders be used for the detection of illegal filling and monitoring of LPG usage for clean cooking products, and we have industrial use cases where motors running on LPG need to be monitored, and in the establishment of new forms of home delivery systems.

As a provider of smart cylinders, we believe we can help our customers further expand their business and open new revenue streams by giving them a means to interact more closely with the end consumer. Our customers can also look into value chain optimizations now that they have a connected cylinder in their fleet.

How did the relationship with Saft come about? With the importance of reliability and safety for your products, was that a key factor in selecting the right battery?

Saft was one of several candidates to supply a small lithium cell that could operate for a very long time in a low-power circuit.

We chose Saft based on the analysis, support, and feedback from the Saft technical team, and the reassurance they gave us in the form of a confident statement about the product's lifetime in different environments.

All in all, it was an assessment of product reliability, technical competence, and the ability to deliver quality products.

All technical tests for ATEX certification were passed on the product with the Saft LS14250 battery that we use in the Linktra® Smart cylinder.

What does the future hold for the LPG market?

The LPG market is expected to grow, especially in developing countries where the transition from wood and coal-based heating and cooking to LPG is well underway. We already have serious interest in our smart cylinder to help facilitate the transition from wood to LPG through clean cooking programs.

For us, establishing a smart cylinder ecosystem is important to ensure we reinforce our position as the global leader for innovative composite cylinders. And we might need to develop the sensor further so it can communicate directly with the internet. For this we’ll need batteries we can rely on, and hopefully Saft will continue to be a part of this journey.

A sustainable way forward

The LPG sector is certainly growing, fuelled further by a proliferation of bio-sourced liquid gas, or Bio-LPG. This gas is produced using renewable sources including biological oil and fats, and the fermentation of glucose.

The Linktra® Smart cylinder is fully compatible with these Bio-LPGs, which have an even lower carbon footprint than conventional LPG.

A rising awareness of the benefits of cleaner energy provision will drive the continued adoption of LPG. With the introduction of IoTenabled smart cylinders, Ragasco looks set to maintain its reputation for meeting the needs of the LPG market through innovation.