COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PETROLEUM GAS AND TOWN GAS AS SUSTAINABLE FUELS FOR HAWKER CENTRES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Hawker centres are unique to Singapore. Despite the substantial amount of carbon emissions generated from combusting of LPG or town gas for cooking, which contributes to a sizeable proportion of Singapore’s carbon footprint, there is a lack of literature available on the cooking fuel usage in hawker centres. Thus, a comparative study of town gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as sustainable cooking fuels for hawker centres in Singapore was conducted. The hypothesis “Town gas is more suitable than LPG for commercial cooking in hawker centres” was made. The main objective was to determine and compare the energy performance, carbon footprint, cost, safety and spatial constraints of the two fuels to demonstrate town gas as the greener and more environmentally friendly option, and hence the preferred cooking fuel as compared to LPG. The methodology of the study includes a detailed literature review, site visits to collect data such as fuel consumption, hawker stall ratio and LPG storage areas, interviews with fuel suppliers and authorities, and a parametric study analysis to determine the energy performance, greenhouse gas emissions, cost, and safety level for each of the fuels, at a hawker centre level. Some of the key findings of the study are: • A typical hawker centre using town gas requires 1,950kWh less energy than one that is using LPG per month. • A typical hawker centre using town gas has a total carbon emission of approximately 16.6% less than a hawker centre of the same capacity using LPG. • Converting all 40% of the hawker centres using LPG to use town gas, would result in a 222,396 kg reduction in carbon emissions per month. This is equivalent to planting 668 acres of trees per month, and reducing the number of cars in Singapore by 1.5 per month, and hence 18 cars per year. Town gas was found to be a more suitable fuel for commercial cooking in hawker centres as compared to LPG. Thus, the hypothesis was accepted. A switch from LPG to town gas in hawker centres which are currently using LPG was proposed and deemed to be feasible. However, this study is limited since a relatively small sample size of 10 hawker centres was used.