A reactive distillation process is proposed for the production of isopropanol by transesterification of isopropyl acetate (IPAc) with methanol using sodium methoxide solution as catalyst. The reaction kinetics experiments were carried out to correlate the parameters in a simple homogeneous kinetic model. On the basis of the fixed point analysis of residue curve maps, the feasibility of a reactive distillation process for the transesterification of isopropyl acetate and methanol was analyzed, and the results showed that the process is feasible under certain conditions. Reactive distillation experiments were set up, and several operation conditions were varied, such as reboiler duty, reflux ratio, space velocity, catalytic loading, and reactant ratio. The results show that the proper reboiler duty, reflux ratio, space velocity, catalytic loading, and MeOH to IPAc molar ratio are 314365 kJ/h, 3.0, 0.73 m(3)/(m(3) h), 0.4 wt %, and 2.5, respectively, and the conversion of IPAc is above 99%. Finally, the overall process flowsheet for synthesizing isopropanol is proposed.