For quite some time the idea of operating diesel engines on fuel that has been created from vegetable or animal sources has been promoted. In fact, the inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel, himself ran his creation on pure peanut oil in early exhibitions. While it was not the German engineers intent for the propulsion of the engine to be reliant on crude oil, at the end of the day, it became apparent that it was less expensive and simpler to manufacture diesel fuel from crude oil. Since that conclusion, several attempts at replacing crude oil have been made with various feedstocks.

Formerly, feedstocks for biodiesel included animal fats, vegetable oils, soy, rapeseed, jatropha, mahua, mustard, flax, sunflower, palm oil, hemp, field pennycress, pongamia pinnata, and algae. It should be noted that while there are other feedstocks used to create fuel used in diesel engines, not all are biodiesel. In order to be biodiesel, the feedstock must go through a process called transesterification. Now, there is another addition to the list of feedstock for biodiesel list, and it is used coffee grounds.

Making biodiesel from used coffee grounds is gaining attention and, in turn, the amount of research regarding this prospect has been increasing. There are of course proponents and neigh-sayers. Mainly, the question at hand is whether using the grounds as feedstock is sensible, based upon several factors. However, there is a definite buzz, and what appears to be potential.