This article explores the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling for designing an oven which enables the adiabatic operation of a chemical reactor at bench-scale. For accomplishing this scope, the oven consists of electrical heating elements, air circulation system and a control loop that uses the temperature inside the reactor as set-point for the reactor wall temperature. Depending on the spatial configuration of the air flow and the heating elements, as well as the air flow rate, different temperature profiles within a given oven section are obtained, being appropriate those leading to uniform reactor wall temperatures and fast dynamic response. The use of CFD allows, by obtaining temperature maps within the oven, the selection of appropriate configurations. The optimal configuration adopted has been experimentally validated in a lab-scale adiabatic reactor working with both particulated and monolithic catalyst beds. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.