The effects of the adsorbent characteristics on the performance parameters and periodic state behavior of the vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) solvent vapor recovery (SVR) processes are examined and optimized. The adsorbent characteristics studied were the adsorbent particle's porosity, density, radius and heat capacity, the packed bed void fraction, the isosteric heat of adsorption, the monolayer saturation limit of the solvent molecules on the adsorbent, the adsorbent's affinity to adsorb the solvent molecules and the mass transfer coefficient for the adsorption of the solvent molecules. It was found that the best VSA-SVR process performances can be obtained using adsorbents characterized by the minimum possible packed bed void fraction and particle porosity, with the maximum possible adsorbent heat capacity and density, adsorption monolayer saturation capacity and mass transfer coefficient, and at intermediate adsorption affinity and isosteric heat of adsorption of the solvent molecules.