A new continuous process for the selective production of castor-oil green diesel was developed, leading to 95.3% purity and ca. 98% relative yield. Castor oil was hydrotreated in fixed-bed continuous reactors, with one or two stages, using NiMo/Al2O3 as catalyst. It was demonstrated that performing the process in a single hydrotreating bed the presence of hydroxyl groups in castor oil afforded secondary reactions that led to low values of purity and yield. Running the reactions in a two-stage continuous system allowed to remove, in the first bed at 270 degrees C, hydroxyl groups and unsaturations before the deoxygenation of the carboxylic groups in the second bed at 350 degrees C, improving in this way the purity and the yield considerably. Physicochemical properties of the so-obtained product met most of the specifications of the European standard EN 590 but the CFPP. Blending of green diesel (20% vol) with petro-diesel satisfied CFPP specifications for diesel grade B. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.