Why This Special Diesel Fuel Costs Over $20,000 Per Gallon

Now and then, we all find ourselves complaining about fuel prices. That stuff can be expensive, especially if you’re stuck fueling up in a gas station in the middle of nowhere that can gouge you on the price. If you want to buy really expensive fuel, though? Head over to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Yes, the government agency will be more than happy to sell you some incredibly expensive diesel, if that’s what you need. You can get a bottle of SRM-2723b, which contains 100 mL (roughly 0.1 quarts) of Number 2 diesel. It’s not especially good diesel, but that tiny bottle will set you back a full $530.

Putting that in context, a 2024 Ram 1500 has a 25.9 gallon tank. To brim that tank, you’d need 980 bottles of NIST diesel. In total, you’d be billed $520,000 to fill the tank. A Ford F-150’s 30.6-gallon tank would cost you over $600,000, and you’d have a massive pile of glass bottles to dispose of afterwards. I guess you could throw them in the bed? But let’s explore what’s going on here.

“Surely there must be something special about SRM-2723b to make it so expensive?!” you exclaim. You’re asking the right questions. SRM-2723b is a Standard Reference Material, specifically referred to as “Sulfur” in Diesel Oil. When you fork over $530, NIST provides you with 100 mL (0.1 quarts) of diesel with a tiny and precise amount of sulfur content, and a certificate stating that fact.

See, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has an important job when it comes to producing these  reference materials, which are used widely in science and industry. These materials are not intended to be used for their usual purpose. For example, you’re not supposed to put NIST Standard Reference Peanut Butter on a sandwich. You could, but it’s real purpose is meant to aid in industry testing. When a company tests its own peanut butter for things like fat and sugar content, it needs a way of calibrating its tests to ensure they’re accurate. By running the same test on NIST’s standard peanut butter, for which known values exist, the test can be verified as needed. The organization itself explains the matter well in regards to the food industry:

Food manufacturers use the SRMs to calibrate their test methods and equipment. If their tests of our SRMs do not give them the answers that we say they should, they know that something has gone wrong with their tests and they have some adjustments to make. Once their results agree with ours, they know that their tests are properly calibrated and they can then accurately label their products with nutritional information and consumers can know that they are getting a balanced diet (or not, no judgment). When a company buys an SRM from NIST, they are really buying all of the measurements and scientific expertise that went into determining its chemical or physical properties, as well as NIST’s level of certainty regarding those measurements. After all, knowing how good your measurement is is as important as knowing the measurement itself, which is why NIST works constantly to improve measurement science.

NIST sells some 1,300 SRMs that help a variety of industries make sure they are meeting regulations or industry standards that help ensure the safety and consistency of their products, among other characteristics.

But the food and beverage SRMs can present unique challenges, in particular to NIST staff. Said one anonymous researcher, “I remember the trouble I had with the baking chocolate SRM. Never before during my sample prep had I wanted to ‘catch the drip’ on the lip of the beaker with my finger and eat it.”

These reference materials have to adhere rigidly to standards. To that end, they’re produced with great care, and assessed to ensure they contain precisely what NIST says is in them. This takes lots of lab work and testing, which is all very expensive. Combine that with the fact that there is only a very limited market for these materials, and that only small amounts are required, and you can understand why the cost is so high.

If you’re putting NIST standard diesel in your truck, for example, you’re effectively setting your money on fire. To that end, I’m not even sure NIST produces 26 gallons of standard diesel a year. Back when NIST used to put out a standard B100 Biodiesel product, it only produced one 55-gallon drum of the stuff. If you ordered a sample, you’d get five ampoules for 50 mL in total—the same size as a single American shot glass.

NIST produces a whole lot of these standard materials for all kinds of purposes. There are food standards, chemical standards, and even standard bullets for forensic purposes.

The one thing that disappoints me about NIST’s Standard Reference Materials? Most of the fun ones aren’t automotive-themed. There’s NIST Domestic Sludge, NIST standard cigarettes, NIST Baby Food Composite, and the classic SRM-1546a NIST’s beloved Meat Homogenate. Heck—you can even get frozen NIST standard urine, in both smoking and non-smoking varieties! I’m not even making that up!

What you can’t get are funny labelled bottles of “Standard Gasoline” or “Standard Diesel.” They’d make a gorgeous header image for this article and we could all have a few good laughs. But no, NIST has to make my life hard by not doing that. The organization actually used to produce a wider range of standard diesel and gasoline products, but most have been discontinued in recent years.

These days, the selection is more limited. NIST will sell you the aforementioned Sulfur in Diesel Fuel Oil, while a similar Sulfur in Gasoline product is currently restricted from sale.  You can still get Diesel Particulate Matter, if that floats your boat. Meanwhile, the Lubricating Oil Additive Package is useful if you’re analyzing various types of engine oil.

There are a number of crude oil products, too, including Weathered Gulf of Mexico Crude Oil in Toluene, sampled from the Deepwater Horizon spill in 201o. That’ll set you back $1,310 for just 6 mL—one of the few fluids on earth that costs more than printer ink.

Unless you’re a chemist of the research or industrial variety, you’ll probably never come across these materials in your life time. Still, it’s funny to think about refueling a truck with some of the most expensive fuel on the planet.

Image credits: NIST