This work is focused on the practical application of artificial intelligent techniques in chemical engineering. Specifically, it describes an application of artificial neural networks for modelling the kinetics of a chemical reaction using methods not based in a kinetic model. Thus, neural networks have been used to model the behaviour of one catalyst under different reaction conditions for a specific reaction, i.e. n-octane isomerisation. Secondly, trained neural networks were used to model successfully another reaction with a similar reaction network. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.