Fossil fuel shortages, rising petroleum prices, worldwide demand for renewable energy, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to anthropogenic activities are increasing interest in producing alternative biofuels like biodiesel. Biodiesel, a green alternative energy source, can be harvested from a variety of biological sources. Increasing energy security, improving rural development, and the transition to a low-carbon economy are all critical factors for the advancement of biodiesel production. In this sense, the advances, opportunities, and future perspectives in biodiesel production technologies are discussed, while their limitations and challenges are critically explained. The present study focuses on a variety of established catalytic technologies as well as the potential of emerging technologies and their future prospects. The current challenges of conventional technologies (high expenses, sensitivity to the presence of water and FFA percentage, overlap with food consumption, and adverse environmental impacts) prohibit growth in biodiesel production to its full potential. On the other hand, new alternative techniques discussed in this study (enzyme-catalyzed transesterification, whole-cell biocatalysts, magnetic-assisted transesterifications, and plasma-assisted transesterifications) overcome these bottlenecks and introduce opportunities for bulk industrial scale-up and growth in biodiesel usage by lowering the production costs. Moreover, applications of glycerol by-products (such as epichloridrin) along with the glycerol-free method have been discussed for the economical production of biodiesel. These alternative technologies, aside from their impact on the environment and reducing GHG emissions, can be considered the solution to fossil fuel shortages and high demand. To this end, more research on the industrial production scale-up of emerging technologies is essential.

化石燃料短缺、石油价格上涨、全球对可再生能源的需求以及人为活动导致的温室气体 (GHG) 排放正在增加人们对生产生物柴油等替代生物燃料的兴趣。生物柴油是一种绿色替代能源，可以从多种生物来源中获取。提高能源安全、改善农村发展以及向低碳经济转型都是推进生物柴油生产的关键因素。从这个意义上说，讨论了生物柴油生产技术的进步、机遇和未来前景，同时批判性地解释了它们的局限性和挑战。本研究侧重于各种已建立的催化技术以及新兴技术的潜力及其未来前景。传统技术目前面临的挑战（高成本、对水和 FFA 百分比存在的敏感性、与食品消费的重叠以及不利的环境影响）阻碍了生物柴油生产的充分增长。另一方面，本研究中讨论的新替代技术（酶催化酯交换、全细胞生物催化剂、磁辅助酯交换和等离子体辅助酯交换）克服了这些瓶颈，并为生物柴油的大规模工业规模化和增长带来了机会通过降低生产成本来使用。此外，已经讨论了甘油副产物（如表氯醇）的应用以及无甘油方法在生物柴油的经济生产中的应用。这些替代技术，除了对环境的影响和减少温室气体排放外，还可以考虑解决化石燃料短缺和高需求的问题。为此，必须对新兴技术的工业生产规模进行更多研究。