The diesel engine, created by Rudolph Diesel in 1893 as an alternative to steam engines, has seen a marked rise in use over the past decades as newer engines coming to market have become such cleaner combustors. Since the engines are so efficient, they are ideal for use in heavy transport such as rail and ship, but as technology and advances in fuel make the en­gine emissions cleaner, more and more small engine vehicles are coming to market in light trucks and passenger cars in the US and Europe as well as the rest of the world.

Diesel engines have the ability to run on various sources of fuel. Originally the engine was tested using pure peanut oil and vegetable oil, though today, the engine is commonly run on fossil fuel based diesel fuel, a type of kerosene. To reduce the amount of petroleum based diesel being used in today’s market several alternative types of fuel have been introduced that are compatible with these engines. Among the alternatives, generally seen are the lipid based straight vegetable oils and the modified biodiesels. Straight vegetable oil will burn

without problem in diesel engines; however, preheating of the fuel is required in order to reduce viscosity to pumpable levels. Biodiesel fuels, which are generally from the same source of lipids as straight vegetable oils or algal oils, are a much better suited fuel because they match several of the same characteristics as modern diesel fuel, and thus, require little to no engine modifications or fuel pretreatment modifications.