Diesel engines are a type of internal combustion engine. Rudolf Diesel designed his own engine and obtained patent for his design. In his engine, fuel was injected at the end of compression and the fuel was ignited by the high temperature resulting from compression. Rudolf Diesel originally designed the diesel engine to use vegetable oils as a fuel in order to help support agrarian society and to enable independent craftsmen and artisans to compete with large industry. This was also after his failed attempt to run the engine on coal dust. Diesel engines are used in cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and locomotives.
So can the everyday diesel engines of today run on vegetable oil.... The answer is yes! So why don't we? The first deterrent is that the US government has a strict law against it. Why? Well in the US the government taxes the fuel used in cars and does not tax food, so it would be bad for business. There is a big and healthy fine if you are caught trying to do so. This is why all the myth busters and testers out there perform there tests with used vegetable oil or fryer grease they obtain legally from a restaurant.
The fuel mileage is the same for both fuels and no modification needs to be done to the engine for it to run on the vegetable oil. This engine was designed from day one by Rudolf Diesel to run on vegetable oil.
