An experimental study is presented for comparing the behavior of a packed bed reactor in the catalytic liquid-phase oxidation of aqueous phenol with two modes of operation, downflow and upflow. The operating parameters investigated included temperature, reactor pressure, gas flowrate, liquid hourly space velocity and feed concentration. Because of the completely wetted catalyst, the upflow reactor generally performs better for high pressures and low feed concentrations when the liquid reactant limitation controls the rate. The interaction between the reactor hydrodynamics, mass transfer, and reaction kinetics is discussed. For both operation modes, complete phenol removal and significant total organic carbon (TOC) reduction can be achieved at rather mild conditions of temperature (150-170degreesC) and total pressure (1.5-3.2MPa). The results show that the phenol and TOC conversion are considerably affected by the temperature, while the air pressure only has minor influence. Total elimination of TOC is difficult since acetic acid, as the main intermediate, is resistant to catalytic wet oxidation. All tests were conducted over extrudates of Fe-Al pillared clay catalyst, which is stable and maintains its activity during the long-term experimental process. No significant catalyst deactivation due to metal ion leaching and polymer deposition was detected. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.