Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) are useful as biodiesel and have environmental benefits compared to conventional diesel. In this study, these esters were synthesized non-catalytically from non-edible vegetable oils: neem oil and mahua oil with two different methylating agents: methanol and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). The effects of temperature, pressure, time and molar ratio on the conversion of triglycerides were studied. The temperature was varied in the range of 523–723 K with molar ratios upto 50:1 and a reaction time of upto 150 min. Conversion of neem and mahua oil to FAMEs with supercritical methanol was found to be 83% in 15 min and 99% in 10 min, respectively at 698 K. Further, a conversion of 46% of mahua oil and 59% of neem oil was obtained in 15 min at 723 K using supercritical MTBE. The rate constants evaluated using pseudo first order reaction kinetics were in the range of 4.7 × 10−6to 1.0 × 10−3 s−1for the investigated range of temperatures. The activation energies obtained were in the range of 62–113 kJ/mol for the reaction systems investigated. The supercritical synthesis was found to be superior to the catalytic synthesis of the corresponding FAMEs. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd