Early experimenters on vegetable oil fuels included the French government and Dr. Diesel himself, who envisioned that pure vegetable oils could power early diesel engines for agriculture in remote areas of the world, where petroleum was not available at the time. The diesel engine was developed out of a desire to improve upon inefficient, cumbersome and sometimes dangerous steam engines of the late s.
As the fuel enters the cylinder it self-ignites and burns rapidly, forcing the piston back down and converting the chemical energy in the fuel into mechanical energy. Rudolph Diesel, for which the engine is named, holds the first patent for the compression ignition engine, issued in Diesel became known worldwide for his innovative engine which could use a variety of fuels.
The early diesel engines had complex injection systems and were designed to run on many different fuels, from kerosene to coal dust. It was only a matter of time before someone recognized that, because of their high energy content, vegetable oils would make excellent fuel. The French government was interested in vegetable oils as a domestic fuel for their African colonies. Rudolph Diesel later did extensive work on vegetable oil fuels and became a leading proponent of such a concept, believing that farmers could benefit from providing their own fuel.
However, it would take almost a century before such an idea became a widespread reality. Shortly after Dr. Alcohol can be manufactured from corn stalks, and in fact from almost any vegetable matter capable of fermentation…We need never fear the exhaustion of our present fuel supplies so long as we can produce an annual cop of alcohol to any extent desired.
But despite its promise, alcohol as a fuel has had its challenges. Throughout its history, biofuel producers have fought a mostly losing battle with petroleum-based fossil fuels, vying for subsidies and preferential tax treatment.
Because of its larger political and economic clout, the fossil fuel industry has generally held the upper hand, though that could be starting to change. Going back to the s, a blend of camphene and alcohol was the dominant fuel for lamps , as much as million gallons a year were sold, almost ten times the volume of the more expensive whale oil. Many farmers had their own stills that they used to make lamp oil and other things from crop wastes.
But somehow, kerosene, or coal oil, as it was called then, was taxed at only ten cents a gallon. By , kerosene was selling over million gallons a year. The first internal combustion engine in the U. He fueled it with a mixture of turpentine and alcohol. German inventor Nicolaus August Otto is generally credited with inventing the first automobile engine.
The four-stroke internal combustion engine he developed in used alcohol, which was plentiful and untaxed in Europe, as the fuel. Rudolph Diesel demonstrated his first engine in running on peanut oil.
The Ford Model T, which first came out in , was also designed to run on ethanol. But somehow the "unseen hand" gave gasoline prominence.
By , there were 9 million gasoline-powered vehicles on the road. Biofuels tried to make a comeback in the s in the form of gasoline blends. At one point there were 2, stations across the Midwest, but the company went bankrupt in During the war, ethanol was primarily used to make 75 percent of all synthetic rubber, which was in high demand.
This form of fuel was discovered even before the discovery of the fossil fuels, but with the exploration of the fossil fuel like gas, coal, and oil the production and use of biofuel suffered a severe impact. With the advantages placed by the fossil fuels they gained a lot of popularity especially in the developed countries. Liquid biofuel have been used in the automotive industry since its inception.
One of the first inventors to convince the people of the use of ethanol was a German named Nikolaus August Otto. Rudolf Diesel is the German inventor of the diesel engine. He designed his diesel engine to run in peanut oil and later Henry Ford designed the Model T car which was produced from to This car was completely designed to use hemp derived biofuel as fuel.
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