Inhibiting CO emissions during catalyst regeneration

A system for removing deposits from a catalyst, the system comprising:

• a reaction vessel containing a catalyst coated with deposits;
• an inlet to flow an oxygen-containing gas over the catalyst in the reaction vessel;
• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
• while the oxygen-containing gas flows over the catalyst, heat the catalyst to a first temperature to begin combusting the deposits and generating effluent gas comprising carbon dioxide and substantially no carbon monoxide;
• and
• while the oxygen-containing gas continues to flow over the catalyst, gradually increase a temperature of the catalyst from the first temperature to a second temperature at a rate selected to continue combusting the deposits and generating effluent gas comprising carbon dioxide and substantially no carbon monoxide.