Emulation around biofuel production has encouraged biofuel projects to be launched in Burkina Faso in order to promote economic development. The challenges for this have led to the creation of a network of actors pushing for its promotion. This study aims to characterize the emergence of the biofuel production and innovation system (IS), as well as the development trajectories observed. The IS approach is used as a framework for analyzing the development conditions of this innovation. The results show that while biofuel production tests were conducted in the 1980s, the process of biofuel innovation has only really taken off over the past 5 years. The results highlight poor interaction between actors and a lack of knowledge about production techniques. There is clearly a legislative and regulatory vacuum in this sector. All these failures explain the ongoing situation of this biofuel IS.