The present work describes the characterisation of a new active zinc oxide catalyst by combined study of temperature programmed desorption (TPD) of adsorbed ammonia and infrared (IR) spectroscopy of ammonia adsorbed at different levels. This zinc oxide showed an unusually high acidity similar to 7.0145 mmol/g in terms of adsorbed ammonia. TPD profile gave three distinct regions at 433, 573 and 673 K unlike other zinc oxide sample which showed only two distinct peaks at low and medium temperatures. Attempts are made to classify these peaks into strong and weak B and L acid sites, with complementary evidence from IR spectroscopic studies.