The heat transfer characteristic of honeycomb ceramic regenerator was optimized by the perturbation analytical-numerical method. The results show that there is a temperature efficiency peak and the corresponding optimal switch time. The decrease of air oxygen concentration leads to the decrease of maximum temperature efficiency. Optimal switch time is directly proportional to the matrix thickness. The solid heat conduction along the flow direction and the regenerator heat storage capacity of the unit volume have no impact on maximum temperature efficiency and optimal switch time. The temperature efficiency tendency based on the semi-analysis is the same as dispersion combustion tests with low oxygen concentration, and optimal switch time of 2-4 s agrees well with that of 4 s in high-temperature gasification tests. The possibility of design, operate and control a thin-walled regenerator with high efficiency by means of the perturbation method is proved.