A study of turpentine direct hydration was carried out, using macropore and strong acidic cation exchange resin Amberlyst 15 wet as catalyst. During the hydration process, the isomerization of alpha-pinene also took place under the catalytic condition. The effects of different parameters such as agitation speed, catalyst type, catalyst loading, mass ratio of the reactants, temperature and the reusability of catalyst on the conversion of turpentine and the yield of alpha-terpineol were investigated to obtain the optimal reaction conditions in a stirred-tank reactor. Based on these optimized conditions, the experiment was conducted in a new pilot-scale jet reactor to achieve an excellent performance. Kinetics of the direct hydration reaction was also performed in the temperature range :328.15-348.15K. A pseudohomogeneous (PH) model was used to explain the reaction rate equation and to determine the reaction rate constants and reaction activation energy. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.