| In order for all of us to understand what is going on in | | | | addiction on foreign oil, hopefully, will motivate us to |
| the world about the high price of gasoline. Let us look | | | | explore options with a more open mind. The many |
| at one mans quest to make the engine a better and | | | | experiments that have lately come alive attest to what |
| cheaper running machine, a quick history lesson if you | | | | is possible if we are willing to change in a positive |
| will.A lot of people think of the diesel engine with the | | | | direction or maybe to go back to the primary vision of |
| black soot soaring upwards from large semi-trucks on | | | | Rudolph Diesel and his engine.Here a several of new |
| the highways and byways of America. We have all | | | | advances moving full steam ahead:1. From fat or |
| smelled the odor when they idle in a parking lot. If you | | | | vegetable oil through a chemical process called |
| have ever been in the Army you can remember the | | | | transesterification comes biodiesel an alternative fuel. |
| deuce and half trucks and their smell.This is how the | | | | This process breaks apart the glycerin from the fat or |
| diesel engine has developed but was this the way its | | | | vegetable oil, creating two new products, glycerin and |
| inventor imaged it, as an engine running on petroleum? | | | | biodiesel. The most popular source for biodiesel is |
| The diesel engine was invented by Rudolf Diesel and | | | | soybean oil, but poultry fats can also be used.2. |
| ran with success on its fuel of choice - PEANUT OIL | | | | Ethanol, another clean-burning fuel has sparked interest |
| !Diesel also tried out successfully with using whale oil | | | | in biodiesel which is being helped by new government |
| but neither fuel was as prevailing or as easily available | | | | standards and rising gas prices. A number of ethanol |
| as petroleum. At this time petroleum based oils were | | | | projects developing from corn, soft wood and other |
| the most economically obtainable. | | | | sources also are under way.3. Also, today May 20, |
| So the engine took the route of easy oil and you now | | | | 2006 in the news, there is research being done in an |
| know the rest of the story.Rudolf Diesel had stated | | | | early 1900s red brick armory at the Kossuth County |
| "The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and | | | | fairgrounds in Iowa. The engine can run on a number |
| would help considerably in the development of | | | | of fuels including hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, |
| agriculture of the countries which use it"And later | | | | propane or digester gas from landfills. The company is |
| predicted that "The use of vegetable oils for engine | | | | initially focusing on making more efficient, |
| fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may | | | | environmentally friendlier engines to replace those used |
| become in course of time as important as petroleum | | | | in generators and in forklift trucks, airline ground |
| and the coal tar products of the present time."You | | | | equipment, irrigation pumps, tractors and buses.The |
| might be asking why hasn't someone done something | | | | Energy Policy Act of 2005 commands an increase in |
| about this in the past 100 years? Well, it has come full | | | | renewable fuel usage to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 from |
| circle and we are now doing something.Keeping the | | | | 4 billion gallons in 2006. The bill also supports the |
| above mentioned history in mind and looking to our | | | | alternative fuel industry with production incentives such |
| future, our affiliation with the oil industries and our | | | | as tax credits. |