In this study, an attempt is made to produce a hydrocarbon fuel from jatropha vegetable oil for Diesel engine applications. The "catalytic cracking" a process recently introduced by the researchers is chosen as an alternative method to trans-esterification process to match the fuel properties to diesel. Jatropha vegetable oil was cracked into a gas using the cerium oxide catalyst in a fixed bed catalytic reactor. The produced gas is introduced at constant rate into the inlet manifold of the Diesel engine. The experimental work was carried out in single cylinder water cooled direct injection Diesel engine coupled with eddy current dynamometer. The combustion parameters are measured by AVL combustion analyser. From the experimental results, the increase in brake thermal efficiency of the engine for full load was observed to be 10% (relative) compared with diesel. Notably, emissions such as HC, CO, and smoke are reduced by 18%, 61%, and 18%, respectively, when compared with diesel.