A universal program has been used and, for a first time, the equilibrium parameters of the multicomponent heterogeneous system Cu-Zn-Al-O in two variants of the initial ingredient composition at a pressure of 0.1 MPa within the temperature range from 1000 to 3700 K have been defined. as dependencies of the concentration of the corresponding compound in gas and condensed phase at an equilibrium composition of the system on the temperature have been build. Devising 2D models that describe the motion, heating, melting and vaporization (thermal destruction) of micron-size particles in an axisymmetric cylindrical plasma-chemical reactor (PCR) (with "cold" (T-w = 500 K) (CW) or "warm" (T-w = 1500 K) (WW) walls), is invaluable in obtaining sufficiently accurate data enabling one to determine the optimal plasma-chemical process parameters: PCR size, time of residence of the particles in it, as well as the particle diameter changes along the length of the PCR; trajectory of the particles in the PCR, etc. Based on the model calculations, we designed and built a plasma-chemical installation and used it to study the mechanisms of preparation of catalysts (and regeneration of spent deactivated catalysts) for low-temperature steam conversion of carbon monoxide. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.