**1. Introduction**

The importance and relevance of generating liquid fuels from biomass and producing biodiesel from vegetable oils given the enormous environmental advantages the process offers cannot be overemphasized. The increasing popularity of biodiesel has generated a great demand for successful commercial production methods, which, in turn, calls for the development of technically and economically sound process technologies. The applicability of various technologies employed currently for biodiesel production under diverse catalytic and process systems is explored, with particular attention paid to sustainable protocols for sub-Saharan Africa. Africa holds abundant renewable energy sources with an estimated 1.1 million gigawatts of potential hydropower capacity, geothermal and solar energy as well as substantial biomass potential. Irrespective of this, however, in reality there appears to be a rather limited utilization of these renewable energy sources as modern renewable energy sources account for less than 2% of primary energy demand in sub-Saharan Africa as far back as in the 1990s [1]. Sub-Saharan Africa also has significant amounts of renewable energy that could still be exploited, as renewable energy technologies (RETs) have demonstrated their capacity to meet energy needs where the conventional energy supply options have proved unsuccessful. Modern biomass technologies in Africa need to be developed to their optimum potential as this specifically would offer sub-Saharan Africa self-reliance with respect to energy supplies at the national and local levels with economic, ecological or environmental, social and security benefits [2]. Energy consumption in Africa is largely dominated by combustible renewable resources and if Africa were to take its rightful place in the developing renewable energy market, the advantages would be abundant. A majority of African countries obtain their main household energy resource from biomass used for various activities such as cooking, drying and space heating. According to reports by Energy for Sustainable Development in Africa,

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primary energy consumption has been increasing steadily to about 24% [3]. While liquid fuels remain the largest source of energy, fossil fuels are expected to meet much of the global energy required for sustainable development. Predictable high world oil prices in the nearest future, though prices are currently very low, may lead many energy users to shift from liquid fuels when feasible will make a way for renewable energy sources [4]. Among the many possible resources, biodiesel has received the most attention as a promising substitute for conventional petrol-diesel fuel.
