Carbon material prepared from D-glucose has been examined as a solid acid catalyst. Sulfonation of incompletely carbonized D-glucose results in amorphous carbon consisting of small polycyclic aromatic carbon sheets with high density Of SO3H groups. The carbon material exhibits remarkable catalytic performance for the esterification of higher fatty acids. This can be attributed to high density Of SO3H groups with strong acidity in the material. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.