Diesel fuel is another bi product of the petro-chemical industry. It was invented by Rudolf Diesel, a German scientist whilst he was trying to make a car run on coal dust. When that didn’t work he tried to use other substances like Vegetable oil and peanut oil. Diesel’s engine relied on a compressed air ignition system instead of a spark. It was successfully exhibited at the Paris expo in 1911.
The most common type of Diesel, and the one that you will find in your Diesel Generator from https://www.gener-g.co.uk/diesel-generators/ , is that of Petroleum Diesel. This relies on the standard Petrochemical mixture. However this is not the only type. Synthetic Diesel that is made from biomass, natural gas and coal. This is very much in the spirit of Diesel’s original design.
BioDiesel is the other. It seems that Rudolf was on the right lines in the first place and he may just have come up with a solution to a future oil crisis. Bio Diesel performs just as well as the petrochemical variety and because it’s related to Vegetable oil we can grow it.