The market intelligence company Transparency Market Research (Albany, N.Y.) forecasts that the global propane market will reach $145.82 billion by 2022. Research by the company finds that stringent environmental regulations and less reliable conventional gas sources are expected to be major growth drivers for the propane market in residential applications, which dominated the global propane market in 2013.

Owing to its clean properties compared to other fuels, demand for propane is rising and expected to grow substantially in the next four to five years, the consultancy asserts. Propane is gradually becoming a primary fuel worldwide, chiefly due to its growing applications in the transportation and domestic segments. Rising demand for energy and concern for climate change would significantly augment the propane market.

Transparency Market Research comments that propane is highly preferred due to its higher calorific value and lower cost compared to other fuels. Hence, the propane market is likely to witness substantial growth. However, a lack of propane autogas retailing infrastructure in some regions and few propane-fueled vehicles will act to limit widespread adoption in the transportation sector.

The market for propane has been segmented on the basis of applications into residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, chemical and refinery, and agricultural. The residential segment, the largest, is expected to further increase by 2022. However, it has recently entered into a slowdown in Latin American countries, while the economies of the Middle East and Africa are still exhibiting minimal growth.

The global market for propane has been segmented into five regions: North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific accounted for 39.18% of the global market share in 2013. It was the largest regional segment in terms of volume in the same year. Asia Pacific’s market share is further anticipated to increase to 41.39% by 2022, primarily due to rising demand from petrochemical industries in the region. Further, rapid development of the manufacturing, petrochemical, and chemical processing industries in the emerging economies in India and China will play a major role in fueling demand for propane in Asia Pacific. Significant growth in other industries such as power, infrastructure, hydrocarbons, and automobile manufacturing is expected to boost demand for propane during the forecast period.