The paper presents theoretical analysis and experimental results of dilute SO2 oxidation over activated carbon coupled with partial liquid phase evaporation. A dynamic model has been first developed for this combination of reaction with vaporization of liquid in the packed bed. The model reveals the interactions among the exothermic reaction, endothermic vaporization and partial internal wetting of activated carbon pellets. Reliability of the model is verified by the experiments. Secondly, the effects of the two different operation modes and the states of the wetted catalysts on SO2 oxidation are compared. The results have demonstrated that this method has an increased SO2 removal efficiency and a higher sulfuric acid concentration.