The homogeneous wet oxidation of phenol, catalysed by Cu(II), has been studied in a trickle bed reactor. The reactor bed consisted of a ceramic foam made of alumina with a cell density of 20 ppi. This bed is especially suited to promote mass transfer between phases with very low pressure drop. The gas phase (oxygen at 0.6 MPa) was circulated continuously, while the liquid phase (40 mol/m(3) phenol in water) was circulated in discontinuous mode, i.e. with total recirculation of liquid. The experiments were planned to determine the influence of the main operating conditions, i.e. liquid superficial velocity (0.9-3.3 x 10(-3) m/s), Cu(II) concentration (0.41-0.945 mol/m(3)) and temperature (110-143 degrees C). Temperature and liquid superficial velocity were found to have the most marked influence in phenol conversion. The use of the foam packing, particularly at high liquid superficial velocities, enhances oxygen mass transfer between phases and increases the efficiency of the process (higher phenol conversion). A mathematical model, based on conservation equations applied to the bulk liquid and liquid film, has been proposed and validated with the experimental results. It has been found that the model is able to predict the experiments within an error of +/- 10%. (C) 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.