A ‘Hamburger Helper’ for diesel fuel

An U.S. newspaper highlighted earlier this week the efforts of Reno, Nevada-based Advanced Refining Concepts (ARC), a company that has developed a cost-effective oil substitute that runs through conventional fuel pumps, truck fuel tanks, and diesel engines, a diesel-natural gas hybrid whose cost efficiency is what the company’s owners believe will set it apart from its competitors.

“You can have the best fuel in the world, but the second you tell mechanics you have to change this or change that, it just doesn’t get done,’’ said Peter Gunnerman, co-founder of ARC.  Gunnerman’s company produces what it calls GDiesel, a fuel that starts with ordinary ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and natural gas.

ARC’s refinery bubbles the gas through the diesel fuel, and with a catalyst, it reacts chemically and grows the diesel by more than 10 percent. Because diesel fuel is sold by volume, the expansion becomes a sort of Hamburger Helper, or inexpensive filler. And natural gas is significantly less expensive than diesel.

Gunnerman said that its customers are able to travel further on a tank of gas and that their vehicles require fewer oil changes. While none of ARC’s benefits have been independently verified by a lab, sales are growing through a distributor that serves Nevada and California.

ARC produces fuel at a lone processing unit whose capacity has been limited to 4,000 gallons per day because of the scarcity of natural gas at the spot where the unit is installed (Sparks, Nevada). The company plans to have 10 additional units outside of Reno operational next month.

Subbing natural gas for diesel, according to the newspaper, promises both profit and energy security, regardless of environmental benefit. Gunnerman said that he is now searching for methane sources other than natural gas.