Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) production from waste cooking oil was successfully carried out using a newly developed heterogeneous biomass-based catalyst. Activated carbon produced from oil palm biomass was calcined with potassium phosphate tri-basics (K3PO4) in order to synthesize a high catalytic heterogeneous catalyst. As it is characterized with substantial surface area of 680 m(2)/g and basicity amount of 11.21 mmolig, 98% of FAME yield was achieved under optimum reaction parameters of 5 wt% catalyst loading, 12:1 methanol to oil molar ratio at 60 degrees C for 4 h. The catalyst was shown to be reusable, with more than 76% FAME yield after 5 consecutive cycles. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.