Dr. Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, using peanut oil as fuel. With the rising popularity of the diesel engine, petroleum-based diesel fuel soon became readily available and inexpensive.

Many petroleum products, including gasoline, were also produced in the kerosene/diesel fuel distillation process, these products were generally volatile and of little use.

Gasoline was initially discarded often into rivers and lakes because it was too volatile for use as a product for lighting. It wasn't until the 1892 invention of the automobile, that gasoline was recognized as a potentially valuable fuel for internal combustion.