More than 10 million tons of biodiesel fuel (BDF) have been produced in the world from the transesterification of vegetable oil with methanol by using acid catalysts (sulfuric acid, H 2 SO 4 ), alkaline catalysts (sodium hydroxide, NaOH or potassium hydroxide, KOH), solid catalysts and enzymes. Unfortunately, the price of BDF is still more expensive than that of petro diesel fuel due to the lack of a suitable raw material oil. Here, we review the best selection of BDF production systems including raw materials, catalysts and production technologies. In addition, glycerol formed as a by-product needs to be converted to useful chemicals to reduce the amount of glycerol waste. With this in mind, we have also reviewed some recent studies on the utilization of glycerol.

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Rubber seed oil (RSO) is a high‐potential feedstock for the production of biodiesel fuel (BDF) in Asia. Transesterification using fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) as co‐solvents was developed for BDF production from RSO with high content of free fatty acids (FFAs). The homogeneous system (FAMEs/triglyceride/methanol) was attained when the FAME content was more than 30 wt %. After esterification of RSO, the crude RSO obtained was transesterified with FAMEs as a co‐solvent. The quality of BDF with high FAME content satisfied the criteria of the EN 14214/JIS K2390 standards. These results suggest that FAMEs converted from FFAs can be applied as a co‐solvent and, thus, reused for BDF production.

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