Artificial Intelligence and Nature-Inspired Techniques on Optimal Biodiesel Production: A Review—Recent Trends

Humanity has consumed large amounts of energy in recent decades. Energy requirements increase continuously, and fossil fuel overuse pollutes the environment extremely. The researchers turned their attention to alternative solutions, such as renewable sources of fuels, which reduce negative emissions. At the same time, biodiesel is produced from environmentally friendly raw materials and is a competitive fuel with acceptable properties. The scientific community investigates new approaches to further improve the physicochemical properties of biodiesel in more economical ways. Artificial intelligence and nature-inspired techniques are particularly capable of searching for optimal fuels in complex optimization fields. The current study concerns a recent review of biodiesel production approaches based on evolutionary computation methods. These methods lead to innovative biodiesel development, costing less with lower sulfur content. Except for the economic profits, the reduction of environmental emissions in praxis confirms biodiesel appropriateness for more consumption than fossil blends. The algorithms’ accuracy and effectiveness were evaluated in various case studies and detailed results were offered in every publication. The optimal fuels are produced in laboratories and tested in common engines too. In the literature, there exists a gap in relation to the financial and environmental aspects of biodiesel fuel production, which should also be investigated.