Vegetable oil as a fuel? Not so strange a thought. As Taylor wrote, History repeats itself. It has to. No-one listens the first time," so is true for diesel engines.

The diesel engine was invented by Rudolph Diesel with the first patent being recorded in 1892. After some refinements, in 1898, he demonstrated his engine at the Exhibition Fair in Pairs. His engine was fueled by peanut oil. Thus, the new' green technology of biodiesel is already over 100 years old. His reasoning for using peanut oil even came from his vision of wanting to use an energy source readily available so that there would not be a need to be monopolized by the energy production industry.

Diesel continued to work on his engines in the early 1900s. He focused primarily on making them lighter, as at their original size, they could only be utilized for stationary use, such for ships, submarines, and some industrial machines. His worked ceased in 1913 coinciding with his disappearance. Politics in Germany and the potential use of his inventions by the German Army at that time is though to have played a role.

The first historical loss of biodiesel came in the 1920s when diesel engine manufacturers were mandated by the growing petroleum industry to utilize their lower viscosity fossil fuel. Clessie L Cummins, a mechinc-inventor continued to work with diesel engines. He took the diesel engines at this time and experimented with them in different vehicles. By the mid 1930s, Mercedes-Benz began to experiment. By the 1970s, Peugot, Volkswagon, Isuzu, Audi, Volvo and Datsun also began to experiment with diesel engines. Currently, Mercedes, Volkswagon, and a few American-made trucks utilize the diesel engine for the average consumer.

All of these diesel engines are capable of being converted to run off of a form of biodiesel. And none of this technology is that new; we are retro-fitting technology from 1892 into our 2007 Jetta TDIs. Ah, if only Rudolph would have been able to integrate an Ipod jack and heated seats on his original diesel engine, we wouldn't be weaning ourselves from the petroleum industry now.

Learn more about this author, Helen Konrad.
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