Many vegetable oils have similar fuel properties to diesel fuel, except for higher viscosity and lower oxidative stability. If these differences can be overcome, vegetable oil may substitute for #2 Diesel fuel, most significantly as engine fuel or home heating oil.For engines designed to burn #2 diesel fuel, the viscosity of vegetable oil must be lowered to allow for proper atomization of fuel, otherwise incomplete combustion and carbon build up will ultimately damage the engine. Many enthusiasts refer to vegetable oil used as fuel as waste vegetable oil (WVO) if it is oil that was discarded from a restaurant or straight vegetable oil (SVO) or pure plant oil (PPO) to distinguish it from biodiesel.

A Swiss study calculated the merits of each crop according to their greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact. The best biofuels came from recycled cooking oils and grass- and wood-produced ethanol. The worst came from Brazilian soy, Malaysian palm oil and U.S. corn, all of which are central to their respective countries' biofuel programs.

Local media reported San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) had begun picking up used cooking oil this Christmas season from residents under the SFGreasecycle program (SFG), which aspires to alter waste grease into biofuel for vehicles running the city.

Passengers riding on certain buses in Scotland will soon be able to trade in their used cooking oil for reduced fares. The oil will be recycled to power a fleet of eight buses that run on 100-percent biodiesel as part of a trial initiative by Stagecoach, one of the United Kingdom’s largest bus and coach operators, to reduce carbon emissions.

A bus company is offering discount travel in return for used cooking oil to power its bio-fueled fleet in a ground-breaking scheme in the UK. Households along the Service 1 bus route in Kimarnock, Scotland have been given containers to collect their used oil in, which they can exchange for discount travel vouchers at their local recycling plant.

A story announcing the City of San Francisco's kick off of its SFGreasecycle program. A city run waste grease collection program to biodiesel for the cities 1500 diesel vehicles.While I highly commend the city for its mandate to use biodiesel, I am not so sure that taking over a business that they could have contracted out is the best idea.