In this short tutorial, we will guide you how to calculate cost of diesel per Giga Joule (GJ). You can apply the same calculationg principles for any country with several changes to unit pricses.
Here, we will calculate the cost of diesel per Giga Joule (GJ) in United States of America. Cost of diesel is a mandatory value to do costing for chemical engineerng applications.
It will play a significant role to identify a project feasibility, specially where diesel is used as a petroleum fuel for energy generation.
Cost of diesel per Giga Joule (GJ) in United States of America
Following data is required for the calculation.
- Technical data of diesel
- Unit price of diesel
Technical data of diesel
| Parameter | Value | MoU |
| Density | 0.85 | kg/L |
| Lower calorific value | 42.60 | MJ/kg |
| 1 gallon = | 3.78541 | L |
Unit price of diesel in United States of America (USA)
According to the U.S. Energy Information and and Administration, average unit cost of diesel was $3.56 / gallon.
Calculate cost of diesel per Giga Joule (GJ) in United States of America
Here we will go through the three steps of calculating the diesel cost for energy basis.
- Calculate unit cost of diesel on volume basis ($/L)
- Calculate unit cost of diesel on weight basis ($/kg)
- Calculate unit cost of diesel on energy basis ($/MJ or $/GJ)
Calculate average unit cost of diesel volume basis ($/L)
Usually, diesel is sold on this basis in the world.
- Average unit cost of diesel (on liter basis) = Unit price of diesel ($/gallon) / Liters per gallon (L/gallon)
- Average unit cost of diesel (on liter basis) = $3.56 gallon-1 / 3.78541 L gallon-1
- Average unit cost of diesel (on liter basis) = $0.94 L-1
Average unit cost of diesel (on kg basis)
We can use the density value for calculation.
- Average unit cost of diesel (on kg basis) = Unit price of diesel ($/L) / density of diesel (kg/L)
- Average unit cost of diesel (on kg basis) = $0.94 L /0.850 kg L-1
- Average unit cost of diesel (on kg basis) = $1.105 kg-1
Average unit cost of diesel (on GJ basis)
In the previous step, we have calculated the cost of diese1 per 1kg of diesel. Because, we have the date of how much energy will be released when 1kg of diesel is burnt, we can calculate the cost of diesel per GJ.
Lower calorific value of diesel = 42.60 MJ kg-1
Above days means that, when 1kg of diesel is burnt, heat of 42.60 MJ is released.
In other way, we can say for 42.60 MJ, we need to spend $1.105. Thefore, now we can calculate the unit cost of diesel per MJ.
Average unit cost of diesel (on MJ basis) = Unit price of diesel per kg ($/kg) / lower calorific value of diesel (MJ/kg)
- Average unit cost of diesel (on MJ basis) = $1.105 kg-1 / 42.60 MJ kg-1
- Average unit cost of diesel (on MJ basis) = $1.105 kg-1 / 42.60 MJ kg-1
- Average unit cost of diesel (on MJ basis) =$ 0.0259 MJ-1
- Average unit cost of diesel (on GJ basis) =$ 25.9 GJ-1
We have done a ChatGPT survey to check our calculations are correct or not. Actually, ChatGPT also has shown that, our calculated value and AI value are also similar.
