Biodiesel is produced using a variety of sustainable feedstocks such as vegetable oils extracted from plants, used cooking oils, animal fat, and even algae. It contains no petroleum.

Major vegetable oils used to make biodiesel today are:

Soy oil
Palm oil
Peanut oil
Rapeseed oil, and
Used vegetable oil from restaurants

Another oil gaining popularity is extracted from the seeds of Jatropha plant. These seeds contain the highest percentage of oil content among known seeds.

Jatropha oil is inedible. Therefore, its use for making biodiesel fuel does not compete with other edible oils for human consumption.