An Austrian company, Gaskoks, obtained the technology from the South African Agricultural Engineers; the company erected the first biodiesel pilot plant in November 1987, and the first industrial-scale plant in April 1989 (with a capacity of 30,000 tons of rapeseed per annum).
Raziskave na področju transesterifikacije , uporabe in izboljšav (do primerljivosti s fosilnimi gorivi) sončničnega olja so se začele leta 1979 v Južni Afriki.