The performance of four different alumina-supported noble metal catalysts (0.5% of Pd, Pt, Rh and Ru, respectively) for the deep oxidation of trichloroethene (1000-2500 ppmV, WHSV = 55 h(-1)) in air was studied in this work. Experiments were carried out at both dry and wet (20,000 ppm of H2O) conditions. Catalysts were compared in terms of activity, selectivity for the different reaction products (CO2, HCl, Cl-2, C2Cl4, CCl4 and CHCl3), and stability at reaction conditions. As general trend, the activity of the catalysts decreases in the order Ru >> Pd > Rh > Pt. Concerning to the effect of the water addition, no important effect on the catalyst activity was observed, except in the case of Pt, for which an increase of the catalytic activity was observed. Reaction mechanism (and hence product distribution) is very similar for Rh, Pd and Pt, being in these cases C2Cl4 the only organochlorinated by-product detected. In the case of Ru, the reaction mechanism seems to be quite different, CCl4 and CHCl3 being the main organic by-products. Simple power-law kinetic expressions (first order on trichloroethene concentration for Pd, Rh and Ru, and zeroth order for Pt) provide fairly good fits for catalytic performance of the studied catalysts. Finally, deactivation studies show that both formation of active metal chlorides (especially in the case of Rh) and fouling (especially for Pd and Pt) are the main deactivation causes. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.