In general, the gas concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is low (in ppm levels) and the gas volume is large, for example, the indoor exhaust gas flow rate and VOCs concentration from a certain printing factory are 800 Nm(3)/min and 17 ppm, respectively. Therefore, it is expensive and ineffective to treat them directly. For these exhausts, the gas treatment system combined the gas concentrating technology using absorbent material is extremely effective. The conventional desorption processes use thermal desorption method and pressure swing adsorption method. In the present study, we focused on toluene which is a typical matter among VOCs. The toluene concentration using the plasma desorption and the honeycomb-type absorbent material which is used in the conventional thermal desorption process was investigated in order to achieve higher concentration efficiency and make the treatment equipment smaller in size than the conventional equipment. Also, the effects of background gas, flow direction and flow rate in the desorption process were demonstrated. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.