A sequential design strategy for selecting experimental runs to obtain model discrimination and precise parameter estimation is tested via a simulation study of propylene oxidation kinetics. The strategy is used to design all runs including the preliminary ones which were arbitrarily chosen by earlier researchers. To design initial runs, crude initial parameter guesses may be used in the rival models until least squares estimates can be calculated. Even under conditions of very bad initial guesses and high error variances, this procedure selects whichever model is the correct one and estimates with precision its parameters, in fewer runs than previously reported.