Titanate and titanium oxide powders are photoactive materials widely used to prepare photocatalysts and solar cells. This work describes the unusual catalytic activity of potassium titanate to transesterificate edible oils. The solid powder prepared by hydrothermal synthesis presented low crystal quality as well as alkoxide and nitrate impurities. In a first run, the yield of methyl esters was close to 100% in a reaction conducted with 3.0% of catalyst and a ratio of 1:1 of methanol to oil mass at 50 degrees C. Although these soft reaction conditions are not suitable for recycling assays, the catalyst shows activity up to the third run in a sealed vessel at 120 degrees C for 1 h, which are common conditions for current heterogeneous catalysts. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.