Why focus on an alternative to diesel versus gasoline?

There has been significant funding for biomass biorefineries using cellulosic feedstock. Cellulose provides a relatively low energy density fuel which can be a good substitute for the gasoline market. VE is focused on a production process which would be the most well suited alternative to the higher energy density fuels like diesel.

Currently the United States uses about twice as much gasoline than diesel. There are, however, many reasons why the US will begin using more diesel in the future:
- Better fuel efficiency
o Diesel engines can get significantly better mileage (10%-40%) than a similar gas powered vehicle
§ Diesel engines use the more efficient direct fuel-injection method (fuel injected directly into cylinder) compared to the port fuel-injection setup in gas engines where gas is mixed with incoming air in the intake manifold, the diesel system has little wasted or unburned fuel.
§ Diesels also use about one third as much fuel at idle as gasoline units.
- Higher Energy Density
o Diesel fuel has a higher energy density than gasoline - 147,000Btus versus 125,000 Btus (18% higher energy density)
- Flexibility of Fuel in On Road Use
o Diesel engines has been proven to produce horsepower like a gasoline engine by winning at Lemans, while only diesel is able to produce real torque for towing large loads.
- Diversity of Uses
o While gasoline is used primarily for light duty vehicle use diesel has a wide variety of applications including: light duty cars and trucks, big rigs, construction, municipal and farm vehicles, buses, generators, trains, boats, heating oil, lubricants etc.
- Cost Less to Refine
o Diesel fuel is easier to refine and therefore takes less time to get from raw petroleum to final product than gasoline
- Lower Emissions
o Diesel vehicles are naturally 20-40 percent more energy efficient than gasoline vehicles resulting in a 10-20 percent reduction in GHG emissions
- Cheaper Maintenance and Longer Engine Life
o The average gas engine is good for only around 125,000 miles before needing a rebuild. A diesel can go more than three times this amount before needing an overhaul
- No Real Replacement
o While there may be replacements for gasoline powered cars (hydrogen, electric etc.) there are simply no similar replacements for the diesel engine on the horizon


Diesel and jet fuel are used in a large variety of applications including:
- Truck Fleets
- Power generation (peak use)
- Marine market (
- Small generators
- Heating oil
- Aviation
- School buses
- Construction equipment
- Farm equipment
- Light duty vehicles
- Trains