TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: The water-immiscible alcohol is added to the feed stream in 20-100% molar excess relative to the amount of free fatty acids in the feed stream. The glycerol is added to the first reaction mixture in an equimolar or greater amount to the amount of water immiscible alcohol added to the feed stream. The process further involves sparging the first reaction mixture and second reaction mixture with nitrogen; or sparging the first reaction mixture with nitrogen and heating the second reaction mixture under vacuum so as to vaporize out most of the alcohol and condensing the alcohol for recycle; separating a bottom stream from the third reaction mixture comprising the glycerol byproduct and recycling the glycerol byproduct to the second reaction mixture either as it is or following purification. The step of forming glyceride of the free fatty acids is conducted so that a portion of the ester from the first reaction mixture remains in the second reaction mixture. The stripped water and water immiscible alcohol are separated after stripping and the stripped water immiscible alcohol is returned to the first reaction mixture. Preferred Components: The water-immiscible alcohol is hexanol, heptanol, isononanol or 2-ethylhexanol. EXAMPLE - To soybean oil (602 g) was added, oleic acid (106.1 g) and 2-ethylhexanol (98 g). The starting acid value (A.V.) of this mixture was approximately 32. This reaction mixture (794.2 g) were charged to the reactor, which was heated above 160degreesC and sparged with nitrogen at about 1 l/minute rate. The reaction was attempted initially using Fascat 2001 (RTM: a tin catalyst), but when it was noted that reaction water was not appearing after an hour at temperature, a small amount of toluene sulfonic acid was added at about the 68-minute point. It took about 3.5 hours then to go from an acid value of 21 to less than one. The mineral acid catalyst contributed about another less than or equal to 0.3 to the overall acidity. These levels of acidity consumed a small percentage of the sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide catalyst used in the subsequent methanolysis reaction to make biodiesel.