Heterogeneously catalyzed oxidation of glucose in liquid phase was studied as a model reaction under conditions of reversible deactivation of a palladium catalyst. The proposed kinetics model fitted the experimental data very well. The model was used to explore benefits of a CSTR operation under forced periodic modulation of the gas feed stream. The periodic modulation makes it possible to optimize the catalyst reaction-reactivation processes in CSTR, so that the highest possible reactor productivity could be achieved for given input parameters. Under such operation of the multifunctional CSTR, the catalyst activity is long-term steady. Based on simulations, conditions of the highest possible CSTR productivity were identified for given operational parameters. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.