History of Biodiesel

The history of biodiesel begins in the 1880s.  Fatty acids were believed to first be used in the creation of soap products (Maybe that's the start of the idea of recycling). They would filter the grain and wood products to generate the special oils that are required.  The groups would initially use peanut oils, hemp and soybeans to design the foundation of this new type of fuel.  Ethanol and methanol was generated from these products.  It began the layout for the future technology.

Rudolph Diesel designed the compression engine in late 1800s.  He used a common substance, peanut oil.  He wanted to prove to the world that this form of fuel can be the only source needed.  Steam engines were run off of coals and processed oils.  Rudolph desired to show that there was a far better method than the use of fossils.  This technique was present in diesel engine until around the 1920s.  The manufacturers started to use petroleum fuels as an alternative measure.

There have been several individuals in the engine industry to believe what Rudolph had to say.  Henry Ford created a factory to begin mass producing biofuels.  The inventor of the Model T believed that this power was perfect in every way and that he wanted to create all of his automobiles that accepted this fuel.  When Henry began this quest he was on the top of the market.  He contacted natural oil companies and embark on various partnerships.  This was the oil of the future, or so they thought.  Marketing techniques soon came into play.  Around the 1940s, petroleum based products launched advertisements and the commitment of lower prices.  They soon become the number 1 source of fuel.

Hemp oil was discovered to be a major player in the biodiesel era.  This product is naturally grown since the early years on the United States.  They were able to filter this natural substance to create oils of biodiesel products.  With the regular peanut oil and soybean oil, the end product was a small amount.  They discovered with hemp oil, almost all of it can be used for the fuel.  Henry realized that this can assist him in bringing back his factories and creating oils for more parts of his automobiles.

Oil entrepreneurs began locating wells based on petroleum.  People started becoming rich and well-off searching for this type of product.  These same individuals began creating rumors to discredit the hemp oil products.  They began using a newspaper to refer to hemp as Marijuana.  The Marijuana Tax Act was put into place because of the fears that William Randolph Hurst launched.  This act prevented anyone to legally own Marijuana without a government certificate; however, the government was not issuing these papers to anyone.  With this act in place, the biodiesel industry failed.  When the panic hit the streets, people believed that if they used hemp oil, they would be breaking the law as well as damaging their health.  Hemp has never been illegal in the United States.  With this new stigma, hemp received a bad reputation and the factories had to close for lack of funds.