The catalytic total oxidation of toluene at low concentrations in air over Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 catalysts synthesized via the alginate route has been investigated. Several kinetic models have been selected and tested to describe the kinetics of the total oxidation of toluene. Results showed that the power law model and Langmuir model were not enough to represent the kinetics of toluene combustion over the catalyst. On the contrary, the model based on the Mars-van Krevelen mechanism provided a good fit (R-2=0.94) towards the experimental data and allowed to determine the kinetic parameters. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.