This work is devoted to the prevention of runaway reactions for the esterification of acetic anhydride with methanol in the presence of sulfuric acid. To this aim, a kinetic model has been developed and validated through the comparison with experimental data obtained by means of a batch reaction calorimeter operating in isoperibolic conditions. The model, which shows a good agreement with experimental data, then has been adopted for the prediction of the thermal runaway, which may lead to thermal explosion, through the definition of runaway criteria in a batch reactor and through the definition of stability diagram for the reactive system.