An oxidation reaction is one where a compound or element is reacted with oxygen to produce a change or new chemical. The most common oxidation process used in industry is the oxidation of sulphur in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Oxidation occurs in most combustion related processes such as in the incineration of waste materials. For thermal destruction of most combustible waste materials the term incineration is mostly used. However for the thermal destruction of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) the term oxidiser is more common.

In terms of air pollution control the oxidiser will often discharge unwanted pollutants in the flue gas. These must be captured before discharging the cleaned air to atmosphere.

According to the nature of the pollutants the filtration technology could be a scrubber, an electrostatic precipitator of a bag filter. Sometimes a combination may be used, for example when lime dosing in combination with a downstream high efficiency bag filter. The AAF FabriPulse XLC may often be found applied to oxidise type applications.