Kinetics of heterogeneous catalysed esterification of acetic acid with isoamyl alcohol was studied with a cation-exchange resin catalyst, Purolite CT-175, in a stirred batch reactor to synthesise a value added ester, isoamyl acetate. Physical and chemical characterisation of the catalyst in the form of scanning electron micrographs, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area measurement, sodium capacity determination, particle size distribution, and pore size distribution was conducted to assess its performance as a catalyst for esterification reaction. The density functional theory (DFT) model was used to analyse the pore size distribution data of the catalyst. Effects of various parameters such as speed of agitation, catalyst particle size, mole ratio of reactants, reaction temperature, catalyst loading, and reusability of the catalyst were studied to optimise the reaction condition. The equilibrium conversion of acetic acid was found to increase slightly with an increase in temperature from 333 to 363 K and also it increased appreciably with an excess of isoamyl alcohol in the reacting system. CT-175 catalyst can be reused without any loss of catalytic performance. The nonideality of each species in the reacting mixture was accounted for by using the activity coefficient via the use of the UNIFAC group contribution method. The kinetic data were correlated with the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson model. The surface reaction is the rate-limiting step. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.