In the current research, we have studied the catalytic sub- and supercritical water (SCW) treatment of distillery wastewater (DWW) in a batch tubular reactor. Experiments were conducted in the temperature range of 250-400 degrees C, reaction time of 30-120 min at constant pressure of 25 MPa with the aim of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color removal. The initial COD concentration was 60,000 mgl(-1), regarded as high-strength wastewater. The experiments were performed in the presence and absence of different homogeneous (MnSO4 center dot 7H(2)O, ZnSO4 center dot 7H(2)O) and heterogenous (TiO2, CuO, MnO2) catalysts. The obtained results showed that increasing the temperature from 250 degrees C to 400 degrees C has a positive influence on both COD reduction (18.3-50%) and color removal (up to 48.5%) within 30 min and without catalyst, while reaction time has no significant effect. By applying both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, COD and color removal efficiencies were considerably increased. The optimum COD removal efficiencies of 74.4% and 75.1% were obtained by CuO (10 wt%) and MnO2 (10 wt%), respectively at 400 degrees C and 30 min, while the highest COD removal efficiency was 80.9% at 400 degrees C, 120 min and 5 wt% of CuO. Addition of catalysts also greatly influenced color removal, such that MnO2 could remove up to 98.2% of wastewater color at 400 degrees C in 30 min. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.