ABSTRACT
The control of emissions of volatile organic compounds became a very prominent environmental issue with the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. While environmental regulations were in existence long before that time, they focused on controlling the concentrations of six "priority pollutants" in the ambient air. Thermal oxidation is a combustion process. Combustion is defined as the burning of gases, liquids, or solids, in which the substance is oxidized, evolving heat and often light. Thermal oxidizers are distinguished from incinerators by virtue of the fact that they generally only treat vapors or relatively pure liquids. While regulation of air emissions has been a relatively recent trend in contemporary history, the generation of noxious fumes from industrial processes has been around for hundreds of years. The first major national legislation enacted to control air emissions was the Clean Air Act, passed in 1955. It has been amended several times since. However, the most dramatic amendments were added in 1990.
