In this study, a new reaction device suited for forced temperature cycling was developed. This device has a heating element in the reaction tube, and forced temperature cycling was realized by operating this element intermittently. The energy needed for the operation was about 20 W, which is much less than that required to operate reactors used in previous studies of temperature cycling. This reactor was used to examine the effect of periodic operation on the oxidation of propylene. It was found that the conversion under periodic conditions was higher than that observed under steady state. In addition, the reaction system approached a relaxed steady state as the cycle time was reduced to 1 s. The effect of forced temperature cycling on propylene oxidation was successfully demonstrated. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All fights reserved.