Biodiesel is an effective alternative fuel that can be used in vehicles. These biodiesels can be obtained from different sources such as vegetable oil, animal oil, non-food biomass, algae and artificially obtained oil. This document reviews different works considering the utilization of biodiesel, its blends and the impact on the IC engine performance and emission. These review study are categorized in four categories in order to get a clearer idea of the biodiesel and its impact on the engine. These categories are divided as engine performance, engine emissions mainly of NOx, impact of biodiesel on engine component and vice versa, and different generations of biodiesel. The first category describes the research work on the impact of biodiesel on the emission of NOx. Several investigations have been studied regarding this and presented in this review. Second category in this document deals with the effect of biodiesel when used in an IC engine, on the performance of IC engine and also the piston thrust inside the chamber. The third category shows several investigations that were studied and presented the work regarding the effects of biodiesel on the engine components, such as fuel delivery materials (FDM). It also has been seen that the deterioration of biodiesel can also happen under common rail diesel engine operation. And the last categorization was done considering the yield of biodiesel which is divided on the basis of its origin into four generations from where biodiesel is actually extracted. Several authors have performed their works which adheres the last category and explained the different impact of different generation of biodiesel. In the applications, it was observed that it has been seen as the accurate replacement of diesel especially in the IC engines. Also the much lesser harmful emission and less amount of emission are observed. After all these, the performance of engine is also seen as improved.