Current advances in catalysis toward sustainable biodiesel production

• A review of the development of catalysis for sustainable biodiesel production.
• Homogeneous catalyst utilized in current biodiesel production processes.
• Solid acid/base catalysts for environmentally friendly biodiesel production.

Transesterification of vegetable oil/animal fat catalyzed by acid/base catalysts has been widely performed for biodiesel production and the utilization of catalysts directly affects the yield and quality of biodiesel. Based on the up-to-date literatures, the recent applications of various catalysts in biodiesel production processes are described in this work and the popular liquid acid/base catalysts used in biodiesel industry are discussed as well. However, the solid acid/base catalysts with advantages of easy separation and less waste are paid more attention on. Although the biodiesel production process carried out with heterogeneous catalysts is an alternative, the relatively low activity limits their applications in the industry compared to liquid catalysts. To better understand the formation of active sites and develop novel catalysts for the development of biorefinery, the structural properties of various solid catalysts are described since the catalytic properties of solid acid/base catalysts vary from their structures.