The performance of capsulated CaO and active carbon powders for rapeseed oil methanolysis to obtain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) under light irradiation was improved by inserting a condenser lens between the reactor and light source. Capsule breakage was greatly increased by the condenser lens because the lens increased the temperature inside the capsule dramatically. Consequently, a low FAME yield of 46.9% was obtained with the CaO (100 mg/mL)-active carbon (2.0 mg/mL)-loaded capsules after 6 h. Therefore, the effect of the irradiation power and active carbon loading on the final FAME yield was investigated. Decreasing the active carbon loadings from 2.0 to 0.1 mg/mL reduced the capsule breakage, which affected the final FAME yields. The decrease in the irradiation power from 3.6 to 0.6 W also affected the capsule breakage. An active carbon loading of 0.5 mg/mL and an irradiation power of 3.6 W gave the highest FAME yield (90%) after 6 hat 308 K. Under these conditions, the FAME phase only contained 0.37% Ca from the charged CaO catalyst with a capsule breakage of 53%. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.