New porphyrin-based hybrids materials, (SBA-15)-O-Si-(CH2)(3)-NH-CO-(CH2)(2)-OC-HN-5m-Etio-III-Ni2+ and (SBA-15)-O-Si-(CH2)(3)-NH-CO-(CH2)(2)-OC-HN-2-pyrrolic-m-5,10,15,20-TPP-Ni2+, were used as heterogeneous catalysts in the esterification reaction of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) with ethylene glycol (EG) in semi-batch conditions. These results were compared with those obtained for homogeneous catalysis using pure unsupported porphyrins, Etio-III-Ni2+ and m-5,10,15,20-TPP-Ni2+. The catalytic activity for all systems was determined by measuring the amount of methanol produced during the reaction. The kinetic parameter K was obtained for both processes resulting for the heterogeneous catalyst activation energies of 15.39 kJ/mol for SBA-15-Etio-III-Ni2+ and 23.77 kJ/mol for SBA-15-TPP-Ni2+, while for homogeneous catalysis the activation energies were 10.49 kJ/mol for Etio-III-Ni2+ and 23.45 kJ/mol for TPP-Ni2+. The catalytic efficiencies were determined for both processes resulting that the conversions and the activities were slightly higher for homogeneous processes respect to the heterogeneous ones. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.