This review presents the state of the art regarding the possible intensification of desorption processes by use of microwave irradiation. The most important experimental and modeling results reported in the literature on the laboratory scale as well as on the industrial scale were collected in this paper. It follows from the review that microwave heating is a powerful novel method proving many advantages when utilized for regeneration of loaded adsorbents. In general. a short penetration depth could be a drawback of this very efficient heating method. Hence, it seems that the fluidized bed adsorbers are better choice than the fixed-bed ones when the microwave-assisted desorption step is carried Out because more homogenous temperature distribution would be guaranteed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.