Vegetable oil fuel States was producing in excess of 11 billion liters (2.9 billion U.S. gallons) of recycled vegetable oil annually, mainly from industrial deep fryers in potato processing plants, snack food factories and fast food restaurants. If all those 11 billion liters could be recycled and used to replace the energy equivalent amount of petroleum (an ideal case), almost 1% of US oil consumption could be offset. Utilizing recycled vegetable oil as a replacement for standard petroleum-derived fuels like gasoline would reduce the price of gasoline by preserving the supply of petroleum. Virgin vegetable oil, also termed pure plant oil or straight
Vegetable oil refining oil, known as a triterpene, which is transformed into alkanes by a different process. Based on its feedstock green diesel could be classified as biodiesel; however, based on the processing technology and chemical formula green diesel and biodiesel are different products. The chemical reaction commonly used to produce biodiesel is known as transesterification. Vegetable oil and alcohol are reacted, producing esters, or biodiesel, and the coproduct, glycerol. When refining vegetable oil, no glycerol is produced, only fuels. Various stages of converting renewable hydrocarbon fuels produced by hydrotreating is done throughout energy industry. Some commercial examples of vegetable oil refining are