Propylene glycol enables a large variety of consumer and industrial applications: In food and beverage, feed, cosmetics and pharmaceutical applications, propylene glycol USP/EP (pharmaceutical grade) is used, for example, to dissolve flavouring in drinks, to keep animal feed moist, to homogeneously emulsify oily and watery elements in creams, sprays and liquids, or as solvent (excipient) for the active ingredients in medicines.
In industrial applications propylene glycol is used to make other materials, such as the unsaturated polyester resins which are used for example in automotive, bathtubs, kitchenware, pipes, wind turbine blades and marine applications. It is also used to manufacture polyurethane foams, paints and coatings, and plays an important role as an ingredient of formulations for heat transfer fluids, liquid detergents and aircraft de-icing.