Diesel engine exhaust contains large amount of soot which is one of the main pollutants of air resulting in such dangerous diseases as lung cancer. Various filters are commonly used for soot abatement in diesel exhaust, while catalytic oxidation is preferable to intensify burning of soot trapped in filters. Formal kinetic modeling of soot oxidation over CeO2/theta-Al2O3, Pt-CeO2/theta-Al2O3, and Fe-Mn-K-O/gamma-Al2O3 catalysts was done on the basis of temperature programmed oxidation experiments. The influence of the apparent partial order of soot (oxygen) on the apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor was studied. Estimated activation energies and pre-exponential factors were used in mathematical modelling of oxidative regeneration of the diesel filter accumulated soot. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.