Production, characterization and development of standards for biodiesel — A review

Biodiesel is being promoted worldwide as a supplement and alternative automotive fuel for petroleum diesel in spite of several technological, economical and social barriers. This has provided an impetus for new research to overcome these deterrents in its production, to establish its quality criteria (standards), and to develop superior analytical methods for quality control and quality assessment of biodiesel in production and entire distribution chain until consumed by end user. The present review paper briefly covers the production, characterization and standardization of biodiesel, having relevance to the preparation of certified reference materials (CRMs) of biodiesel.