Diesel and jet fuel are the world’s transportation fuels of choice. Over the past fifty years, agriculture, heavy trucks, buses, ships, aviation and the military have converted from using gasoline to using more efficient diesel and jet fuels. In recent years, Europe has been converting its automobile and light truck fleets to diesel and the rest of the world is beginning to follow the same trend. Diesel and jet fuels are the fuels that move the world.
“Worldwide, the fastest growing end product segments are: on-road diesel fuel, off-road diesel, jet fuel, LPG. There will be major emphasis on producing low-sulfur fuels driven by regulations.” Source: Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes, third edition
The world needs a fuel not an additive. Users of transportation fuels want a fuel that can be used with existing engine technology and distribution systems. Existing biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are only additives. While those products contribute toward reducing our dependence on petroleum and reducing tailpipe emissions, they are simply not replacement fuels.
The world is long gas, short diesel. Refiners want to produce diesel because it is more valuable. But crude oil yields approximately two times more gasoline than diesel fuel. So by producing more diesel, they produce more gasoline, and then to compound the problem even further, ethanol is produced as an additive, which ultimately adds to the gasoline supply.
The world wants and needs low life-cycle carbon and low sulfur renewable diesel and jet fuels. These fuels must be finished fuels, not additives.
