Biofuel History
The biofuels industry has existed for more than a hundred years. It first began in the late 1890s, when the German inventor Rudolph Diesel received a patent on an engine design that used peanut oil and compression instead of flammable fuel and ignition 
to power an engine. Henry Ford later designed the Model T car, which was produced from 1903 to 1926, to use biofuel derived from hemp as fuel. However, with the exploration of huge supplies of crude oil in some parts of Texas and Pennsylvania in the 1920s and 1930s, petroleum became very cheap and led to the reduction of the use of biofuel. During this time, most vehicles began using petroleumbased forms of fuel because they were cheaper and more efficient.
Interest in biofuels revived during World War II, as countries faced fuel shortages and searched for alternatives to imported fuel. However, interest in biofuels waned after the war due to the easy availability of petroleum-based forms of fuel both domestically and from major oil-producing nations in the Middle East.
Interest in biofuels revived again in the 1970s when geopolitical conflicts led OPEC to make heavy cuts in exports to non-OPEC nations. The constant shortage of fuel revived interest in biofuels, but again this interest faded when the world oil supply stabilized.
In the first years of the 21st century, interest in and support for biofuels is again on the rise due to the following factors:
- Fears over rising oil and energy prices
- Concerns about the stability of the global oil supply
- Requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution
- Interest in supporting rural development and empowering people in developing nations
The biofuels industry is already well-established today. While biodiesel has not yet achieved widespread acceptance in North America because of traditionally low petroleum-based fuel prices, biofuels, such as biodiesel, are widely used in Europe. In 2009, the biofuels industry is projected to produce more than 10 billion gallons of combined alternative fuels and to generate more than $30 billion dollars in revenue.
