Emission of NOx is of primary environmental concern in the oil sands industry. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is one of the best NOx reduction technologies. The present study discusses the testing of a mechanistic kinetic model for the SCR of NOx to describe the kinetics of V2O5/TiO2 catalysis at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 623 K in a monolith honeycomb reactor. The modeling results impart insight into the significance of the diffusion with reaction steps and guidance for optimal monolith design for SCR. The validated expression would predict the conversion performance of the catalysts for different values of temperature inlet and ammonia concentration. A good agreement between experimental and model results has been obtained. A heterogeneous numerical model consisting of coupled mass and momentum balance equations was solved using the finite elements method without neglecting the axial dispersion term. The operating range for the catalyst relies on the NO conversion and emission. The optimum operating range for the best performance of the reactor is discussed. © 2008 The Institution of Chemical Engineers.