The intrinsic kinetics was studied for the synthesis of acetonitrile from amination-dehydrogenation of ethanol over the Co-Ni/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst in the fixed-bed reactor. Experiments were carried out at reaction temperatures in the range 613-643K, reactor pressure of 0.1 MPa, the ratios of volume feed velocity to catalyst volume (V-0/V-R) more than 12.99 min(-1) and large excesses of ammonia concentration over that of ethanol. The power-law model was used to fit the experimental data, and the model parameters were estimated using the Matlab software. Finally, a reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe the reaction, the calculated activation energy was 51.18 kJ mol(-1) and the reaction order to ethanol was 1.183. (C) 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.