SCR(Selective Catalytic Reduction) is a major after-treatment solution to reduce NOx emission in recent diesel engines. In this study, a metal foam is applied as an alternative SCR substrate and tested in a commercial diesel engine to compared with a conventional ceramic SCR system. Basic engine test from ND-13 mode shows that a metal foam catalyst has lower NOx conversion efficiency than a ceramic catalyst especially over $350^{circ}C$. A metal foam catalyst has characteristics of high exhaust gas pressure before a SCR catalyst and high heat transfer rate due to its material and structure. NOx conversion efficiency of a metal foam catalyst shows an increasing tendency along with the increase of exhaust gas temperature by $500^{circ}C$. The effect of urea injection quantity variation is also remarkable only at high exhaust gas temperature.