Here is another one I found using XLS translation:

Namespace ExcelUtil

    Public Class WorkbookEngine

        ' you could have other overloads if you want to get creative...
        Public Shared Function CreateWorkbook(ByVal ds As DataSet) As String
            Dim xmlDataDoc As New XmlDataDocument(ds)
            Dim xt As New XslTransform()
            Dim reader As New StreamReader(GetType(WorkbookEngine).Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(GetType(WorkbookEngine), "Excel.xsl"))
            Throw New System.Exception("5")
            Dim xRdr As New XmlTextReader(reader)
            xt.Load(xRdr, Nothing, Nothing)
            Dim sw As New StringWriter()
            xt.Transform(xmlDataDoc, Nothing, sw, Nothing)
            Return sw.ToString()
        End Function 'CreateWorkbook
    End Class 'WorkbookEngine

End Namespace 'ExcelUtil

This one reads a dataset and works with it to obtain an XML ready to be read by Excel. However, I cannot proceed on the assembly line. I end up with:

Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: stream