This article is the first experimental demonstration of autothermal operation in an open loop reactor for catalytic abatement of low-concentration volatile organic compounds (VOC). The system under investigation, which comprises three reactors organized in a loop with automatic switching of the feed position, has been successfully operated for ethylene oxidation. The influence of the feed flow, rate and concentration on the pulse velocity and maximal temperature has been investigated. A simple analytical approximation for front velocity in the nonadiabatic one-dimensional (1D) model has been derived and compared with the experimental results. (C) 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.