Catalytic oxidation of light hydrocarbons is very essential in energy and petrochemical industries. In spite of the considerable research work that has been published, there is still much ambiguity and confusion as to the main reaction mechanism taking place, especially on the roles of heterogeneous and homogeneous radical chemistry. The understanding of the fate of radicals inside the traditional porous catalysts are largely hindered by the so called “ irreducible mass transfer limitations”. To avoid this complexity, we have used a non-porous nickel mesh catalyst in the study of catalytic ethane oxidation. In our experiments, metallic nickel mesh (40 × 40) with 0.25 mm wire diameter and 36% open area was placed in the isothermal region of a quartz tube reactor. Reactant gas consisting of ethane, oxygen and argon at the ratio of 10/5/85 (by vol) was fed through the bottom of the reactor and the reactor was heated externally by an electrical furnace. The reaction was studied at different feed flow rates. Our results for the low gas flow rates showed negative effects of nickel mesh catalyst. At a high gas flow rate, the opposite effect was observed where the nickel mesh showed positive catalytic effect. We concluded that hydrocarbon radicals were quenched on the catalyst surface during reaction at low flow rates. At high gas flow rates, the heterogeneously-produced OH radicals could desorb from the catalyst to accelerate reactions in the gas phase when the mass transfer gas film around the Ni wires was minimised.