In this work, soap was converted into a hydrocarbon-rich product through catalytic pyrolysis using cement as a catalyst. The intention was to develop a new economical and effective method for preparing diesel and gasoline from soap waste in food processing. The optimum conditions for pyrolysis were investigated in a batch process under static conditions at different reactor temperatures, catalyst amounts, and reaction durations. The resulting oil product was analyzed using GC-FID, GC-MS, and FTIR. The best yield occurred at a reaction temperature of 400°C for 60min with 0.3 g/g (30 mass) catalyst in soap waste, which resulted in 0.71 g/g (71 mass) hydrocarbons with small fractions of pyran, ketone, and oxygenated compounds of mixed functional groups. The resulting liquid pyrolysate mainly consisted of diesel-like oil with a small fraction of gasoline and some oils that had boiling-point temperature ranges similar to kerosene. © 2016 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering.