Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to study the activation of methyl acetate and methanol on MgO(100) and MgO(501) surfaces and integrated in the context of transesterification, interesterification and glycerolysis reactions used in biodiesel industry. First results indicate the importance of including of dispersion forces in the calculations. On MgO(100) the reverse reactions steps of C-O and C-H dissociations and on MgO(501) the same reverse reaction step of C-H dissociations of methyl acetate are energetically favorable, while the dissociation of C-O bond into methoxide and acetate fragments on the edge of MgO(501) was found to be exothermic with a low activation energy. For methanol, the dissociation of O-H bond on MgO(100) surface in the presence of the second coadsorbed methanol molecule becomes more energetically favoured compared to the isolated molecule, due to the fact that the methoxide fragment is stabilized by intermolecular hydrogen bonding. This is reflected by the decrease of the activation energy of the forward reaction step and the increase of the activation energy of the backward reaction step, increasing the probability to have dissociated molecules among the undissociated ones. These results represent a step forward for better understanding from atomistic point of view the paths of these reactions on these surfaces for the corresponding catalytic processes. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.