Introduction
Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine in the 1890s. From the beginning, this engine could run on a variety of fuels, including vegetable oil. In 1900, one of the new diesel engines featured at the Paris Exposition was powered by peanut oil. However, because cheap petroleum fuels were easily available, few people were interested in alternatives (Pahl, 2005, pp. 18-22).
As early as the 1930s, there was interest in splitting the fatty acids from the glycerin in …