A kinetic model was fitted for the liquid phase esterification of acetic acid with isoamyl alcohol in the presence of the heterogeneous catalyst Amberlite IR-120. The experiments were performed in the temperature range of 322-362 K in a batch reactor. Sequential experimental design, based on the divergence criterion and tools from computational statistics such as the deviance information criterion estimated by a Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique, were used to discriminate among 12 possible kinetic models. Adsorption experiments using pure substances and binary mixtures were also performed. In statistical terms, two kinetic models appear as the most appropriate for this esterification reaction: a simple, easy-to-handle model that uses molar fractions and a second model based on the NRTL activity model, which is physically more realistic due to its congruence with the resin sorption phenomena. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.