For the description of the phenomena occurring in packed-bed reactors a wave model (WM) has been proposed by Kronberg and Westerterp (Chem. Eng. Sci. 54 (1999) 3977) as an alternative to the standard dispersion models (SDM). In this work the WM is investigated. The capabilities of the WM have been tested on the basis of three industrially important reactions: (1) partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde; (2) synthesis of vinyl acetate from acetic acid and acetylene and (3) methanation of carbon dioxide. The predictions of the WM have been compared with the predictions of the SDM and experimental data taken from literature. In case of moderate reaction rates very good agreement was found between the predictions of both models and the experimental data. In case of highly exothermic reactions with steep temperature and concentration profiles the SDM fails to describe the experimental data, whereas the WM gives a good agreement with the experiments. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.