A novel concept is obtained by adding two layers of a carefully selected adsorbent to both sides of the catalyst bed of "conventional" reverse flow reactor. This reactor system with integrated separation accomplishes, in effect, a selective by-passing of the reaction zone of specific components in the feed, e.g. catalyst poisons. We developed the concept for reverse flow catalytic combustion of volatile organic components (VOCs) over Pd catalysts, where H2O in the feed is known to be detrimental to catalyst activity and stability. However, the concept has much wider application and can be considered for any reverse flow system. (c) 2007 Shell Global Solutions International B.V. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.