The usage of automobiles growing day by day leading to the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental degradation, hence there is a necessity to discover the other resources to come across the demand of energy crisis of the present trend and also to restrict the emissions that are produced by the fossil fuels. At this instance, alternate fuels being the best possible solution among which biofuels may be the suitable one to internal combustion engines. Many of the researchers from their investigations showed that various engine tests of short duration using biofuels were precisely encouraging, but the problem arises with long term engine durability tests resulting in engine failure due to higher amount of carbon deposition and polluting the lubricating oil. The main aim of this review is to study the tribological feasibility of biofuels for transportation applications as the tribological performance of the biofuels plays a crucial role in automobiles. The various tribological aspects of biofuels in terms of material compatibility, long term endurance, wear and frictional characters are discussed in detail. This review presents the detailed studies on the tribological parameters in terms of friction and wear characteristics employing various types of biodiesel and biofuels as fuels in both the compression ignition and spark ignition engines and also adopting the bio-oils as lubricating oil. However, the present review will not carry out any fresh results rather than provides the developments followed in past trends and put forward certain future perspectives in the field of tribological concept of biofuels. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd