High heating value (HHV) is an important property which characterises the energy content of a fuel such as solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. The previous assertion is particularly important for vegetable oils and biodiesels fuels which are expected to replace fossil oils. Estimation of the HHV of vegetable oils and biodiesels by using their fatty acid composition is the aim of this paper. The comparison between the HHVs predicted by the method and those obtained experimentally gives an average bias error of -0.84% and an average absolute error of 1.71%. These values show the utility, the validity and the applicability of the method to vegetable oils and their derivatives. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.