History of diesel engines:
In the 1980s, Rudolph Diesel developed the diesel engine, which was then used worldwide. Rudolph Diesel did many experiments on using vegetable oil as a fuel from his engine, this was before petroleum come to the display. When petroleum came to display, its products were cheaper and petroleum had no effect on the food crops prices while biodiesel from vegetable oil increased the prices for some of the food crops such as corn and soybeans; therefore, petroleum products got the attention of the whole world.
Modern biodiesel fuel, which is made by converting vegetable oils into compounds called fatty acid methyl esters, has its roots in research conducted in the 1930s in Belgium, but today’s biodiesel industry was not established in Europe until the late 1980s. The diesel engine was developed due to the inefficiency and extreme danger of steam engines of the late 1800s. "The diesel engine works on the principal of compression ignition, in which fuel is injected into the engine’s cylinder after air has been compressed to a high pressure and temperature. 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." Those Engines were called diesel engines because Dr. Rudolph Diesel had the first patent for the compression ignition engine in 1893. Diesel became known worldwide for his innovative engine which could use a variety of fuels. After this quick glance at the history of diesel engines, we will start talking about biodiesel from different food crops and from algae as well. Click here to continue... |