Biodiesel offers as an excellent alternative to the petro-based diesel fuel and can be derived from the transesterification reaction of vegetable/non-edible oils and/or animal fats with alcohols. In the present study, hydrodynamic cavitation assisted intensification approach based on the use of high speed homogenizer has been investigated for the intensified production of biodiesel for the first time. The efficacy of biodiesel production was observed to be dependent on the operational parameters viz. molar ratio, catalyst loading and operating temperature. The maximum yield of biodiesel obtained in the present work was 97% for waste cooking oil as starting material and 92.3% for fresh cooking oil under optimized conditions of reaction time of 120 min, molar ratio of methanol to oil as 12:1, 3% wt loading of KOH as the catalyst and temperature of 50 degrees C. The study demonstrated that the application of cavitation offers advantages as enhanced progress of reaction in reduced reaction time and improved separation. Overall, high speed homogenizer has been established to be a viable approach for intensified biodiesel production with possibly favourable economics. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.