The recoverable proven reserves of fossil fuel sources are projected to be exhausted by the end of this century. In response to the exhaustion of fossil resources, there is a serious need to find alternative fuel sources. Bioenergy is one of the potential candidates to counteract the fossil-fuel depletion challenge. Despite bioenergy sources appear to be renewable and net-zero GHG emitting, bioenergy undergoes competition with food, feed and other crucial applications. Since earth’s eco system has a limited capacity of land and water resources, overuse of these resources in bioenergy production could cause adverse social and environmental impacts. This paper summarizes the key sustainability issues involve in bioenergy chain, and examine the potential role of bioenergy in dealing with these sustainability issues. We found that bioenergy can be a sustainable source of energy provided that it has maintained irrationality is using of natural resources and several limits. In contrary, bioenergy would provoke further social and environmental problems if the sustainability issues are not given proper consideration.