A process of recovering and recycling a catalyst includes feeding an epoxidized fatty acid ester, a solvent, and a catalyst to a reactor. The solvent is reacted with the epoxidized fatty acid ester to open epoxy rings of the ester and produce a polyol. Some unreacted solvent remains after the reaction. The unreacted solvent is separated from a mixture of the polyol and the catalyst. The polyol/catalyst mixture is passed to an adsorption bed so that the catalyst is adsorbed and the polyol passes through the bed. The polyol is recovered. The adsorption bed is rinsed with the unreacted solvent to desorb the catalyst and obtain a mixture of the solvent and the catalyst. The mixture of solvent and catalyst is recycled to the reactor for further reaction.