AbstractThe recovery of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from contaminated air generated by small industrial operations such as coating operations and spray painting is an important alternative to other air cleaning techniques such as thermal or catalytic incineration. Three technologies—adsorption, absorption, and condensation—are discussed herein. The focus of this article, and by far the most widely applied technique, is activated carbon adsorption. Commercial systems are generally designed for gas streams containing roughly 300 to 5,000 ppm VOC at flow rates from 200 to 100,000 ft3(STP)/min (5.7 to 2,830 m3(STP)/min).General design parameters and costs, along with their application to example cases, are given for VOC recovery by activated carbon adsorption and condensation. No commercial systems specifically for VOC recovery by absorption have yet been reported, though this technology is extremely important for other air pollution control ne