The reaction kinetics of neopentyl glycol esterification with propionic acid is studied in a batch reactor at different temperatures. The reaction is catalyzed by a heterogeneous resin (DOWEX 50 WX 2). The parameters of the kinetic model are estimated by non-linear regression by minimizing the difference between the measured and predicted concentrations. The reliability of the estimated parameters is analyzed using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. The MCMC method is an advanced statistical approach, which is well suited for the analysis of complex multiparametric non-linear models. The potential of the MCMC method is further demonstrated by optimizing the product yield in CSTR using the estimated parameters from the batch experiments. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.