A full parametric study of the open-loop behavior of a packed bed reactor-recuperator system operating under periodic flow reversal produced a series of parametric maps which slow regions of operating conditions for which the system exhibits runaway, stable operation or extinction of the reaction. The reaction is CO oxidation over a Pt/alumina catalyst. A set of optimal operating conditions in terms of cycle time and heat transfer coefficient can be directly extracted from the parametric maps. A preliminary study on the control of periodic flow reversal tested and compared two strategies. 1) feedback PID control of the exit CO concentration and 2) model based feedforward control.