The History Of Biodiesel, An Alternative Energy Solution?

Biodiesel is effectively a fatty ester based fuel, and it is generally manufactured from vegetable oils such as canola, hemp or soybean amongst others. It may also be created from animal fats in a special simple process and the history of biodiesel tells us that this renewable source of energy which is as efficient as petroleum diesel has been around for a great deal longer than oil commodity brokers care for us to know.

Rudolph Diesel who designed diesel driven motors was the first to make use of renewable energy from plant sources. He used peanut oil to manufacture a product which would drive his engines. He also understood the importance of not becoming dependent on fossil fuels and wanted to prove that renewable sources were better.

In actual fact biodiesel was used in diesel engines until the 1920′s it was only then that manufacturers decided to make use of petroleum fuel. Both methanol and ethanol are able to be produced from these fatty acids. Even Henry Ford believed in the concept propounded by Rudolph Diesel and he build a factory which was equipped to mass produce biofuels. He believed that this was the oil of the future and wanted to manufacture all his automobiles to run on this fuel.

When he commenced with this, he was in the top of his market and embarked on partnerships with natural oil companies. However in the 1940′s petroleum based companies started advertising and as petroleum fuel was cheaper at the time, this fossil based fuel soon became the number one best seller.

Initially biofuels were produced using soybean or other oils, in the meantime hemp had been grown in the US for a long time for many purposes (not to smoke) These other oils could not produce great quantities of biofuel, however it was discovered that oil could be manufactured from hemp which could make large quantities of fuel. Henry Ford wanted to use this discovery and recommence making biofuel from hemp oil.

In the same breath, many oil wells had been found in the US and people were getting extremely rich from selling this oil to manufacture petroleum. They were not prepared to give Henry Ford a market share with his products and started a campaign against the hemp oil product, calling it Marijuana.

The Act prevented anyone from the possession of Hemp (Marijuana) without an appropriate license and the Government would not issue these licenses. This Act effectively stamped out the production of biofuel, as the man in the street was afraid they would be breaking the law if they were in possession of it. This in brief is the history of Biodiesel.