VOC Recovery: Frequently Asked Questions

It depends mainly on the gas flow, the VOC concentration, the solvents involved and how much of them must be recovered, so there is no catalogue price. A feasibility study gives you a technology recommendation with a rough cost range for your stream. As one reference point, a 2004 CCDC design for vapour recovery at a tanker-loading facility was estimated at ₹400 lakh.

Payback comes from the value of the solvent recovered, so it is fastest with valuable solvents, higher concentrations and long operating hours. In CCDC’s 2004 tanker-loading study, the ₹400 lakh plant would recover about 1,460 kl of hydrocarbon a year — worth more than its capital cost every year at the then price of ₹30 a litre — for about ₹8.75 lakh of power.

In Dr D M Mohunta’s 2004 study, absorption recovered acetone for ₹2.27 per kg, against ₹5.70 for refrigeration and ₹7.47 for activated carbon adsorption; on a mixed ethyl acetate / toluene / MEK stream it cost ₹7.30 per kg against ₹10.6 for adsorption. These are 2004 rupees, useful for comparing technologies rather than as today’s prices.

It is a physical absorption process. VOC-laden gas passes through an absorber where a liquid Genosorb® absorbent dissolves the solvent out of the gas. The loaded absorbent is then heated in a stripper, the released VOC is condensed as a recoverable liquid, and the regenerated absorbent is cooled and recycled to the absorber.

In absorption the solvent dissolves into a circulating liquid at ambient temperature and the process runs continuously. In adsorption the solvent sticks to carbon beds that must be switched and regenerated in cycles and periodically replaced. Ketones and mixed solvents release heat on carbon and can cause bed fires; absorption has no beds to overheat, a lower pressure drop and a smaller footprint.

Thermal and catalytic oxidisers destroy the solvent, need supplemental fuel such as natural gas or LPG, and add CO₂ emissions. Genosorb recovers the solvent so it can be returned to production, turning an emission-control cost into a material saving.

No. A solvent distillation unit or “solvent recycler” purifies used liquid solvent. VOC recovery captures solvent that has evaporated into air or nitrogen — from vents, dryers and hoods — and turns it back into liquid. The two can work together: recovered solvent sometimes goes to an existing distillation unit for final purification.

Both polar and non-polar solvents, including acetone, MEK, MIBK, methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, toluene, xylene, hexane, heptane, tetrahydrofuran, methylene chloride, acrylonitrile, styrene and carbon disulphide. Genosorb 300 is used for polar solvents and Genosorb 1843 for non-polar, aromatic and chlorinated solvents.

Genosorb systems are designed for 95–99.9% recovery. CCDC installations have achieved over 99% recovery on acrylonitrile and methylene dichloride streams, and around 90% on multi-point methanol and carbon disulphide streams.

Yes. Genosorb absorbs polar and non-polar solvents together, and CCDC’s trailer-mounted pilot plant has demonstrated recovery from mixtures of up to six solvents simultaneously. The absorbent grade or blend is matched to the mixture.

Yes. For streams of 10,000–200,000 m³/hr at only a few hundred to a few thousand ppm, a rotary concentrator is added ahead of the Genosorb unit. It raises concentration by up to 30×, so a 100,000 Nm³/hr flow reaches the recovery plant as 5,000–7,000 Nm³/hr, cutting equipment cost by 75–85%.

There is no single national rule requiring every plant to recover VOCs. Requirements come through State Pollution Control Board consent and Environmental Clearance conditions, sector guidelines such as CPCB’s draft pharmaceutical guidelines, and specific mandates such as vapour recovery at fuel outlets and terminals. Check your own consent conditions.

Published for comment in early 2025, they propose recovering up to 95% of spent solvent in captive units, keeping total solvent losses within 5% of inventory, controlling VOCs with devices such as scrubbers, condensers and absorbers, and running a leak detection and repair programme. We are not aware of a final notification as of October 2026.

Yes, above certain sizes. Following a Supreme Court order in March 2023, CPCB requires vapour recovery systems at high-volume fuel outlets in large cities and at storage terminals, and has imposed environmental compensation for delays. CCDC has studied vapour recovery for tanker loading, where the recovered hydrocarbon pays for the plant.

Everything from the first assessment to a working plant: feasibility study, process design and engineering, and a skid-mounted, fully instrumented recovery plant designed, engineered and fabricated in India, with on-site pilot trials where they are needed.

Chemicals, specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, flexible packaging, gravure printing, paints, coatings, inks, adhesives, automotive, textiles, battery manufacturing and semiconductors.

Reference installations range from a compact 100 Nm³/hr hexane recovery unit to gravure-printing streams above 100,000 Nm³/hr, including a carbon disulphide system scaled up 500× from pilot to 20,000–45,000 Nm³/hr.

Yes. CCDC can visit your plant, measure VOC emissions from each vent and give you a kg/day figure with a rupee-value loss estimate.

Request a feasibility study. Share the solvent(s), gas flow, VOC concentration and operating conditions, and CCDC will prepare a preliminary recovery evaluation. CCDC is based in Chennai and works with plants across India. Contact voc@ccdcindia.com or +91 98401 42990.