New hope emerges for Nevada company’s cleaner-burning fuel

CARSON CITY — There is new hope that a cleaner burning alternative diesel fuel invented by a Reno businessman and his late father will soon be back on the market in Nevada and around the world.

Despite an ongoing and convoluted dispute with the IRS that derailed the production of GDiesel, Peter Gunnerman has announced a new financing partnership to produce the fuel.

Gunnerman, managing partner of ClearRefining Technologies, is partnering with Ninth Wing Capital to establish modular near-zero emission refineries in major metropolitan areas around the globe to produce GDiesel. The partnership was announced last week. ClearRefining Technologies is the newly formed parent company of Advanced Refining Concepts, the company first created by Gunnerman to produce the fuel.

GDiesel is created with a patented low-pressure, low-temperature process to make it burn cleaner than regular or bio-diesel by using natural gas to change its molecular structure. It burns with more than 50 percent regulated emission reductions and almost 100 percent reduction in smoke and odor.

Gunnerman's tortuous story of bringing his product to market in Nevada was detailed in a Sunday story in the Review-Journal.

"Ninth Wing Capital is excited about growing the GDiesel brand and introducing ClearRefining Technologies to major cities across the United States and throughout the world," said Alex Chehansky, one of three co-founders of Ninth Wing, a boutique investment and merchant bank.

Gunnerman said the agreement will allow the company to build a GDiesel production facility in North Las Vegas to serve local government diesel fleets. Clark County had a three-year contract to use the fuel and was pleased with the results. But Gunnerman shut down production in 2015 because of the dispute with the IRS, which remains unresolved.

Last Thursday, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., who has interceded with the IRS on the company's behalf, quizzed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Gunnerman's difficulties. Amodei's opportunity came at a subcommittee hearing of the House Appropriations Committee on the IRS budget.

Amodei, without mentioning the company by name, said the business was making every effort to comply with IRS rules but has been unable to do so because of changing IRS opinions on whether it is a "blender of alternative fuels."

"These aren't folks who are trying to run away from you," he told Koskinen.

Amodei asked whether the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and other requirements for government agencies apply in such a case.

Koskinen said he could not talk about individual cases but added: "The process is designed to be fair; it is designed to work with people. People ought not to have to go through the maze to the extent we can avoid it. We ought to be able to come to closure."

Koskinen said he would meet with Amodei about the IRS process for resolving such disputes.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801