BACKGROUND: Reverse flow reactors are widely used for the treatment of gaseous emissions containing different hydrocarbons. However, most of the reported studies are focused on the combustion of a given hydrocarbon over a given catalyst. Consequently, any conclusions are difficult to extrapolate to other systems due to the wide range of variation of the chemical properties in these systems (reactivity, concentrations, combustion enthalpy, etc.). RESULTS: A new generalized approach for the design of reverse flow reactors (RFR) for the catalytic combustion of lean hydrocarbon-air mixtures is proposed in this work. This approach allows the preliminary design of RFR for the combustion of a given hydrocarbon on a given catalyst, in terms of intrinsic kinetics (kinetic constant and activation energy) and adiabatic temperature rise (a function of concentration and combustion enthalpy). The combined effect of the adiabatic temperature rise, Damkohler number, dimensionless activation energy and space velocity (GHSV) on typical RFR performance (switching time of 300 s) has been determined, building different charts for determining the stable operating regions in terms of these variables. A one-dimensional heterogeneous model, experimentally validated for the combustion of hexane and toluene over a Pt/Al2O3 catalyst, was used. CONCLUSIONS: Results obtained allow a preliminary design (i.e. determination of the required space velocity) for the effective abatement (99.99% conversion) of a given hydrocarbon in a RFR, if its concentration, reaction enthalpy and kinetic parameters are known. (c) 2009 Society of Chemical Industry