Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx Please cite this article as: Gebresilassie Asnake Ewunie, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110500 1364-0321/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Factors affecting the potential of Jatropha curcas for sustainable biodiesel production: A critical review Gebresilassie Asnake Ewunie a, * , John Morken a , Odd Ivar Lekang a , Zerihun Demrew Yigezu b a Department of Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Science (NMBU), P. O. Box, N-1432, Ås, Norway b College of Agriculture, Hawassa University, P. O. Box, 05, Hawassa, Ethiopia A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Biodiesel Factors Jatropha curcas Oil yield Physicochemical properties Technologies ABSTRACT Scarcity, insecurity, and severe environmental impact of fossil fuel-based energy consumption have enthused the production and utilization of alternative energy resources. Biodiesel is identifed as promising renewable energy that can substitute the petrol diesel consumption with numerous advantages. However, more than 95% of bio- diesel is produced from edible oil crops, which jeopardizes the food supplies. As a result, exploring inexpensive and non-edible oil-bearing energy crops such as Jatropha curcas (Jatropha) has been the target of governments, researchers, industries, and policymakers. However, sustainable biodiesel production from this plant is not achieved yet due to various ecological, socioeconomic, legislative, and technological factors. Previous reports showed that the individual impact of those factors; however, all factors are strongly correlated, and the impact of one factor is signifcantly affected by the situation of other factors. Therefore, the present review is devoted to critically examine and discuss the sole and interactive effect of various factors affecting the cultivation of Jatropha for sustainable biodiesel production by reviewing more than 185 published articles. Various oil extraction and biodiesel production technologies and factors affecting the physicochemical properties of Jatro- pha oil and biodiesel were profoundly investigated. Moreover, the performance, combustion, and emission characteristic of diesel engines fuelled with Jatropha biodiesel were carefully reviewed and compared with petrol diesel. In conclusion, factors affecting the sustainable biodiesel production potential of Jatropha vary across growing regions due to variation in determinants, and the performance and emission characteristic of diesel engines fuelled with Jatropha biodiesel slightly differed from petrol diesel. 1. Introduction In recent years, energy demand is steadily increasing due to modernization and industrial expansion. The world energy consumption was doubled between 1973 and 2013 [1]. It is also predicted that the global energy demand will increase by 49% in 2030 [2]. However, 86.4% of energy demand is still relayed on fossil fuel and nuclear power [1]. The transportation sector has utilized 60–65% of the total oil pro- duction, and oil consumption is continuously increasing [3]. On the other hand, petroleum reserves are depleting at an alarming rate [4,5], and the reservation could be drained within the coming 45 years [6]. In addition to its scarcity, relying on fossil fuel-based energies resulted in the release of exhaust gases such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (UBHC), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and particulate matter (PM). Demirbas and Karslioglu [7] estimated that 4.1 million metrics tons of CO 2 were emitted into the atmosphere within 2007–2020 alone. The transportation sector alone accounts for 98% of CO 2 emission. The emission of CO 2 is further projected to increase by 8.6 million metric tons between 2020 and 2035 [8]. Therefore, developing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission reduction and mitigation measures become global priorities since they cause global warming by trapping the infrared radiation. In conclusion, energy insecurity, depletion of fossil fuel reserves, and the environmental impact of fossil-based energy sources have motivated for searching of alternative energy resources that are renewable and environmentally benign [8,9]. Despite the fact that many efforts are made to expand alternative energy resources utilization, renewable energy sources contribute only 13.5–17.9% of the global energy consumption [1,10]. The share of renewable energy in Africa is reported to be 50%, which is signifcantly higher than other continents. However, renewable energy estimation in developing countries consider the traditional biomass energy sources such as frewood, crop residue, animal dung and charcoals that utilized * Corresponding author. E-mail address: asnake.ewunie.gebresilassie@nmbu.no (G.A. Ewunie). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/rser https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110500 Received 29 August 2019; Received in revised form 30 September 2020; Accepted 19 October 2020