A palm fatty acid distillate(PFAD) has been used for biodiesel production.An efficient sulfonated-glucose acid catalyst (SGAC) was perpared by sulfonation to catalyze the esterification reaction. The effect of three varibles i.e. methanol-to-PFAD molar ratio.catalyst amount and reaction time, on the yield of PFAD esters was studied by the response surface methodology (RSM).The optimum eraction conditions were: 12.2:1 methanol-to-PFAD molar ration, 2.9% catalyst concentration and 134 min of time as predicted by the RSM. The reaction under the optimum conditions resulted in 94.5% of the free fatty acid (FFA) conversion with 92.4% of the FAME yield. The properties of the PFAD esters were determined according to biodiesel standards.