An exploration of biodiesel preparation from nontraditional oil is one of the efficacious practice to answer a finite amount of raw materials of higher expenses. The main aim of this study is to upgrade the reaction process parameters (lauric acid to methanol molar ratio, reaction temperature, reaction time and % (w/w) PE-Si catalyst loading) for the preparation of fuel grade esters (methyl laureate) derived from lauric acid. Therefore, in the present work, a silica anchored sulfonic acid mediated polyol (PE-Si) composite was prepared via chloro-sulfonation of pentaerythritol and employed as an environmentally benign catalyst for single step conversion of lauric acid to fuel grade esters via esterification reaction. The PE-Si composite was evaluated by FT-IR, XRD, TPD-NH3, SEM, TGA-DTA and BET surface area analysis. Whereas, the synthesized methyl laureate (ML) was clearly evaluated by FT-IR, H-1 NMR and C-13 NMR spectroscopy. Besides, fuel properties of fuel grade esters were measured and compared with ASTM fuel standards. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.