Abstract for: The Dynamics Behind Sustainable Biofuels: Lessons from Latin American Supply-Chain Models

System Dynamics (SD) has been widely used to study biofuel supply chains, but its application differs across contexts. In Latin America, biofuel expansion is often shaped by land availability, food security, policy credibility, and state participation, while studies from the rest of the world more often address optimization under relatively mature market conditions. Understanding these differences is important for sustainability assessment. This paper reviews SD applications to biofuel supply chain modeling in Latin America and compares them with studies from the rest of the world. The review examines how models represent supply chain structure, sustainability dimensions, economic dynamics, and policy interventions, with attention to the role of feedbacks, constraints, and endogenous decision-making in shaping biofuel system behavior. Across both contexts, SD models share a common core structure linking feedstock supply, processing capacity, production, and investment. However, Latin American studies more often focus on structural viability under land, social, and institutional constraints, whereas studies from the rest of the world more commonly emphasize transition optimization, including cost competitiveness, technology learning, and emissions reduction. The review identifies recurring limitations in both literatures. Land use and greenhouse gas emissions are often included, but water is rarely modeled as an endogenous constraint. Social dimensions are also weakly represented, since farmers and producer groups are seldom treated as decision-making agents. Future SD models should better integrate water, farmer behavior, and cross-sector policy feedbacks. for grammar checking