Spatio-temporal temperature profiles experimentally observed during the operation of a structured perovskite-based catalytic monolith for the combustion of methane were simulated by means of a transient heterogeneous one-dimensional model which accounts for heat losses to the surroundings and thermal conductivity inside the monolith substrate. In fact it is shown that such thermal phenomena are essential to correctly reproduce the slow warm-up transients and the wrong-way behaviour observed in a low conductivity ceramic monolith. Model simulations reveal that at higher values of solid conductivity the catalyst does not exhibit hot spot both in time and space, but needs higher inlet gas temperatures to reach complete methane conversion. Bifurcation analysis of the catalytic monolith reactor model were carried out to study steady-state multiplicity. We show that the origin of multiplicity is purely thermal as it is mainly ruled by the heat transfer through the external surface. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.