The autothermal catalytic-combustion systems are commonly used for the purification of waste air streams contaminated with low concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC). Within this type of devices, the reverse flow reactors (RFR) are known to be more efficient than systems employing recuperative (surface) heat exchangers to preheat the waste air stream with the lean air effluent from the catalytic incinerator. The advantage of the RFR is basically due to the regenerative heat-exchange mechanism, provided by the inert and catalytic solids inside the unit. As an alternative, the regenerative mechanism of preheating can be achieved by an independent heat exchanger, which coupled to a catalytic reactor could be expected to produce similar performance as the RFR. In this context, this contribution is devoted to analyse comparatively the performances of a rotary reverse flow reactor (RRFR) and a system comprising a rotary regenerative heat-exchanger and a catalytic reactor (RHE-SR system) for the treatment of a waste air stream contaminated with ethanol and ethyl acetate, by means of mathematical simulation. Both alternatives are assumed to be composed of monoliths with square channels. A strategy of design for both systems suitable for their comparison is proposed, attending to a range of VOC concentration in the waste stream. Both alternatives can be regarded as being suitable options to carry out the target. However, the resulting designs show clear advantages in favour to the RRFR, as this alternative requires a significantly more compact equipment than the RHE-SR does and, besides, it allows to be operated under a wider range of the rotational speed, which is the main control variable once the systems are operating. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.