ABSTRACT
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of longchain alkyl (methyl, propyl, or ethyl) esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids (e.g., vegetable oil, animal fat) with an alcohol. In 1900 Rudolf Diesel (German inventor of the diesel engine) demonstrated his compression ignition engine using peanut oil at the World Exhibition in Paris. He delivered a speech in 1912, stating that “the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insigniŽcant today but such oils may become in the course of time as important as petroleum and coal-tar products of the present time.” Despite Rudolf Diesel’s vision from a century ago, biodiesel is still the relative “kid” on the biodiesel “block,” having gained signiŽ- cant momentum only since the start of the new millennium (Borgman 2007).
