Abstract: A catalytic membrane from tungstophosphoric acid (HWP) as the catalyst and poly (vinyl alcohol) as the carrier were prepared by the solvent evaporation method. The effects of HWP/PVA mass ratio of the catalytic membrane, membrane thickness, the water content in soybean oil, different co-solvents and the addition of the co-solvents on the catalytic performances of HWP/PVA membrane were studied. The experimental results indicated that under the optimum reaction conditions, the conversion of soybean oil reached a maximum of 90.6%. When the water content of soybean oil was below 5 wt%, the HWP/PVA catalytic membrane could absorb the water in soybean oil, and the water had little effects on the transesterification reaction. The recycling times of the catalytic membrane crosslinked by glutaraldehyde was better than that of non-crosslinked catalytic membrane. The conversion of soybean oil was not significantly decreased after the catalytic membrane crosslinked being used for six runs.