Many firms have redesigned their processes to minimize or recycle waste material. If a gaseous waste has sufficient combustible material, it can be recycled as auxiliary fuel. In cases where waste gas cannot be recycled, it can often be combusted. The basic assumption is that any hydrogen and carbon in the waste can be oxidized to carbon dioxide and water. For other constituents in the gases, oxidation can result in compounds less harmful or more amenable to removal by air pollution control devices.
Combustion is the main oxidation technique for industrial waste gas.
The term incinerator has been used for combustion of waste gases. However, in a strict sense incineration is the reduction to ashes. Most waste gases have no inert material so there is no reduction to ashes. Incineration has become a term associated with poor combustion. Modern combustion applications for wastes now combine recycle and reuse of parts of the waste while combusting the remainder for high destruction and thermal efficiency.