03/18/2026
Happy National Biodiesel Day!
What better way to celebrate a fuel that started as an agricultural innovation and became a vital part of America’s clean energy mix than on the birthday of Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine?
It's widely known that Diesel's original engine design in the late 1800s was meant to run on peanut oil—an idea that, in many ways, laid the foundation for today's biodiesel industry.
In the United States, biodiesel’s growth has largely been driven by farmers. Through investments made with soybean checkoff dollars beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, soybean growers funded key research, engine testing, and fuel quality enhancements that helped turn biodiesel from an idea into a commercially available fuel.
What began as small pilot projects has expanded into a national network of dozens of commercial biodiesel plants producing nearly 2 billion gallons annually—with room to grow. Biodiesel is now used by fleets, municipalities, farmers, and fuel distributors across the country to improve energy security, lower emissions, and boost performance.
Thanks to decades of innovation, collaboration, and farmer-led efforts, biodiesel has become one of the most successful advanced biofuels in the United States. It supports American agriculture, enhances domestic energy production, and supplies fleets with a cleaner-burning fuel that works with existing diesel engines.
So, on National Biodiesel Day, we celebrate the farmers, researchers, fuel producers, fleets, and advocates who have built this industry—and continue to drive it forward each and every day!
