Esterification of oleic acid by Cs-STA/ZK. Display omitted •Cs exchanged silicotungstic acid supported on Zr-KIT-6 solid acid catalyst was synthesized by hydrothermal method.•Biodiesel produced from oleic acid and non-edible oils at a higher conversion rate of 99% and 98%.•The optimized reaction conditions are 120 °C, 1:27 oil – methanol molar ratio, 7 wt% catalyst loading and 5 h reaction time. The development of solid acid catalyst with superior activity is of high interest for the production of biodiesel. In this study, an attempt was made to synthesize a novel solid acid catalyst based on mesoporous cesium exchanged tungstosilicic acid supported on Zr-KIT-6 (Cs-STA/ZK) and Sn-KIT-6 (Cs-STA/SnK). The catalysts were synthesized by hydrothermal method and characterized by various physicochemical techniques such as PXRD, BET, FTIR, SEM, TEM, XPS, and NH3-TPD. The reaction parameters were optimized using Cs-STA/ZK catalyst. The present investigation explores the production of biodiesel from oleic acid and non-edible oils such as castor oil, pongamia oil, and neem oil. Cs-STA/ZK catalyst exhibited the highest conversion in both esterification (99%) of oleic acid and transesterification (98%) of non-edible oils. Further, the recyclability and thermal stability of Cs-STA/ZK catalyst are investigated in detail.