Bio-diesel—A global scenario A. Avinash a,n , D. Subramaniam b , A. Murugesan c a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur-602117, Tamil Nadu, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, K. S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode-637 215, Tamil Nadu, India c Department of Mechatronics Engineering, K. S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, India article info Article history: Received 18 May 2013 Received in revised form 21 July 2013 Accepted 2 September 2013 Keywords: Bio-diesel Developing countries Developed countries Land use Sustainability abstract Recent days, underground carbon resources are dwindling at a faster rate. This triggered primary interest in development of bio-fuel as substitute to Petroleum-based fuel for alleviating world energy and economic crisis. This review explores the environmental impacts of bio-fuels on the road transportation and a large-scale impact of bio-fuel crops on food-based agricultural lands, which are now more gainfully used for churning out vehicle fuel. A global bio-diesel production is depicted with an appropriate data from 1991 to 2012. Also this article explains in detail the bio-diesel status (which includes crop type, climatic conditions, yield, oil concentration, land use/availability, and policy impacts) of 27 different countries across the world. In addition, this article extends to classify the potential bio-fuel feedstocks obtainable in each country. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 518 2. Impacts of bio-diesel ................................................................................................. 518 3. Global bio-diesel status ............................................................................................... 519 3.1. Africa (an inclusive view on South Africa) .......................................................................... 519 3.2. Argentina .................................................................................................... 519 3.3. Australia ..................................................................................................... 520 3.4. Bangladesh ................................................................................................... 520 3.5. Brazil ....................................................................................................... 520 3.6. Canada ...................................................................................................... 520 3.7. Chile ........................................................................................................ 521 3.8. China ....................................................................................................... 521 3.9. Crete island .................................................................................................. 521 3.10. Cuba ........................................................................................................ 521 3.11. Greece ...................................................................................................... 521 3.12. India ........................................................................................................ 522 3.13. Iran ......................................................................................................... 522 3.14. Ireland ...................................................................................................... 522 3.15. Italy ........................................................................................................ 522 3.16. Malaysia ..................................................................................................... 522 3.17. Mali ........................................................................................................ 523 3.18. Mexico ...................................................................................................... 523 3.19. Mozambique ................................................................................................. 523 3.20. Norway...................................................................................................... 523 3.21. Pakistan ..................................................................................................... 523 3.22. Peru ........................................................................................................ 523 3.23. Tanzania ..................................................................................................... 523 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 1364-0321/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.09.007 n Corresponding author. Mobile: þ91 80126 45399; fax: þ91 44 27162462/27162494. E-mail address: avinashandromeda@gmail.com (A. Avinash). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29 (2014) 517–527