The curing processes of E-51 epoxy resin with two types of curing agents, such as a modified 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole(MIM) and a microcapsule type curing agent with MIM as the core material (MIC), were studied in detail by the non-isothermal differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) technique respectively, and the kinetics of the curing processes were analyzed by Kissinger and Crane equations, based on which the relationship between the curing kinetic parameters of the curing systems with the storage lives of the curing agents at room temperature were discussed in detail. Compared with E-51/MIN system at different heating rates, it was found that E-51/MIC system exhibited lower exothermic heat, the same reaction order (0.89), higher apparent activation energy, higher frequency factor and longer storage life at room temperature.