Heat and mass transfer from a circular cylinder exposed to a convective environment with a surface reaction of arbitrary order is studied based on the stream function-vorticity formulation. A hybrid numerical scheme combining the Fourier spectral method in the angular direction and the spectral element method in the radial direction is used to solve the conservation equations along with an influence matrix technique to resolve the vorticity boundary conditions. Results showing the temporal evolution of the flow temperature and concentration fields are presented for cases with and without vortex shedding with the latter triggered by the cylinder’s rotation. A parametric study is also performed to examine the influence of the Reynolds number, Grashof number, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, Damkohler number, the reaction order, the flow alignment, the heat of reaction, the rotational velocity and the flow pulsation on the effectiveness of the reaction surface. With the exception rotation, they all exhibit strong dependence.