FACT

Nikolaus August Otto, inventor of the combustion engine, created an 1860 prototype to run on ethanol.

Rudolf Diesel designed the diesel engine to run on peanut oil. In 1912, he said: "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in the course of time as important as the petroleum and coal tar products of the present time."

Henry Ford built his legendary 1908 Model T to run on ethanol, gasoline, or a combination of the two. "The fuel of the future," he predicted, "is going to come from fruit such as that of sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything."

In 2004, Harvard University began fueling the diesel vehicles in its fleet with a soybean/diesel oil mix. In 2006, the university converted one of its recycling trucks to run on waste vegetable oil from Annenberg Dining Hall.