Mesoporous silica SBA-15 has been functionalized with sulfonic acid to create highly powerful heterogeneous solid acid catalysts (SBA-Pr-SO3H). The catalyst can be easily removed from the reaction mixture by simple filtration, recovered and reused without significant loss of activity. In this review, the catalytic activity of sulfonic acid-functionalized SBA-15 has been widely studied. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.