The first stages of the development of a catalytic trap for diesel particulate removal from vehicle exhaust gases are addressed, ranging from catalytic trap preparation (a ceramic foam is deposited with catalysts, suitable for soot combustion, based on mixtures of KCI and different vanadates) to catalytic trap testing in a specific pilot plant (an acetylene burner is used to produce a soot laden flue gas which is then treated by the apparatus while the pressure drop buildup throughout the trap and the trap collection efficiency is measured). Traps deposited with CsVO3 and KCI show satisfactory performance allowing to burn out catalytically the soot filtered thereby keeping the pressure drop throughout the trap at acceptable values for vehicle applications. A model is presented and validated, obtaining good agreement with experimental measurements.