This work reports the use of an acid-activated Brazilian smectite natural clay-based catalyst in the esterification of fatty acids at atmospheric pressure and without a co-solvent. Conversion levels of 99%, 98%, 93% and 80% were reached for caprylic, lauric, stearic and oleic methyl esters, respectively, using 1:3 fatty acid/methanol molar ratio, heating bath at 100 degrees C after 4 h. A conversion level of 89% was achieved for methyl esters from a fatty acid residue of the palm oil refining industry in the same reaction condition. The acid-activated clay provided better performance than the commercial catalyst K-10. The effects of catalyst amount, temperature, fatty acid/alcohol molar ratio and time were investigated. The heating activation of the catalyst immediately before the catalytic test increased the conversion from 94% to 99% using 1:1.5 stearic acid/methanol molar ratio, heating bath at 100 degrees C after 4 h. The catalyst was reused five times. The conversion decreases less than 5% in the first three reuses. The smectite natural clay and the catalyst were characterized by X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, n-butylamine thermodesorption, nitrogen adsorption analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.