Martin Davies Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust © 2007 Page 1 of 4
BIODIESEL and VEGETABLE OIL AS A FUEL
The idea of using vegetable oils as fuels for diesel engines is over a hundred years old.
Rudolf Diesel conducted engine tests on plant oils and a...
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Martin Davies Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust © 2007 Page 1 of 4
BIODIESEL and VEGETABLE OIL AS A FUEL
The idea of using vegetable oils as fuels for diesel engines is over a hundred years old.
Rudolf Diesel conducted engine tests on plant oils and a prototype of his new engine
was presented at the Paris exhibition of 1900, running on peanut oil.
Plant oils,
however, are far more viscous than fossil fuels which can result in poor combustion and
formation of deposits.
The problems can be overcome by adapting the engine to the
fuel or, more commonly, the fuel to the engine; biodiesel.
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is a substitute fuel for compression-ignition (diesel) internal combustion
engines.
It is produced by the transesterification of waste or vegetable oils and animal
oils, or fats with lower alcohols.
Most vegetable oils can be converted into biodiesel but
the cost of the vegetable oil feedstock is now a key factor in the least cost production of
biodiesel for blending with fossil
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