By TOM STEEVER
September 22, 2002

Rudolf Diesel had the right idea. Actually, the rather prolific inventor had a number of them, but only one made his name part of common worldwide vernacular. In the 1890s Diesel invented the motor designed to run not on petroleum, but on vegetable oil.

The notion of biodiesel, it seems, is not as new-fangled as people thought. Soybean growers have been scrambling to prove that soybean oil is a viable fuel to power Mr. Diesel's brainchild, but they're not the first. Visitors to the World's Fair saw first-hand diesel engines humming away on peanut oil, and that was in 1900.

"Here we are years and years later and we're returning to running a diesel engine on vegetable oil," says South Carolina soybean farmer David Winkles.

The irony is not lost on the South Carolina Farm Bureau president. "Biodiesel, in one fell swoop would take care of all the excess supplies of soybean oil," says Winkles, referring to the plentiful byproduct that seems to weigh heavily on the soybean market. "Just a 2 percent blend with diesel fuel would wipe out the entire oversupply of soybean oil."

Soybean growers are glad to talk about the advantages of using their versatile commodity to partially replace petroleum in the fuel tank. In addition to being a domestically grown fuel additive, biodiesel is friendly to air quality.

"It can be used in conjunction with diesel fuel in 20 percent blends or down to as low as a 2 percent blend and be a benefit to the environment," says Winkles. "The funniest thing I ever heard about it is that it makes a diesel truck's emissions or its exhaust smell like fried chicken."

Again, the environmental argument for bio-based fuels in this type of engine is not new. It is said that Rudolf Diesel had worries about air quality and considered his invention, powered by vegetable oil, to be a solution to the more polluting engines of the day.

Although steadily gaining popularity, biodiesel retail pumps are still rare. Red Roberts of Aiken, South Carolina, is one of the few who retail biodiesel fuel with an eye toward further American energy independence. "Why do we want to continue to import, import, import?" asks Roberts about the nation's dependence on foreign petroleum.

"Here's a renewable resource that we're growing right here in Aiken County that can be harvested and turned Into renewable fuel," he says. "Every gallon that we can crush and burn in our own vehicles is one gallon less we have to import."

Unlike ethanol, biodiesel has no tax advantage over petroleum. However, federal energy legislation being decided by Senate-House conferees could change that. "The (Senate) bill is a one-cent-a-gallon (reduction in excise tax) for every percent of biodiesel blended up to 20 percent," says Roberts, "so in essence we would have a 20-cent-a-gallon tax credit."

Keeping that provision intact will bring the cost of biodiesel into equilibrium with petroleum diesel and hopelully, will increase biodiesel's retail distribution; Rudolf Diesel would be proud.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer is a producer in broadcast services for the American Farm Bureau Federation.