The catalytic wet air oxidation of cellulose, a model compound for biomass, was evaluated in a monolith froth reactor to assess its application for the conversion of biomass-containing aqueous streams. Both the conversion of cellulose and the formation of more highly oxidized products increased with the presence of a palladium catalyst when compared with a blank monolith. A comparison between the monolith froth reactor and a batch reactor was completed, demonstrating for the first time the mass transfer benefits of this novel reactor to more conventional reactor systems. The effects of base additives on cellulose degradation were also investigated. Reactions were performed in a pH range from 7 to 11.5 and indicated that the reaction rates increased with an increase in the pH of the feed solution. However, relatively little change in reaction rate was observed when the cation of the base was varied. A lumped (three parameter) kinetics analysis based on first order kinetics, consistent with oxidation of similar systems reported in literature, was used to evaluate the performance of the reactor under various feed conditions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.