This work prepares molecular sieve catalysts with various metal species and various metal weight loadings by impregnation, and then screens them in a catalytic combustion system. The current study further investigates the molecular sieve catalyst in an RCO system after it performed well in combustion efficiency. This work tests its performances in terms of CO2 yield, pressure drop, the difference between temperatures of the inlet and outlet gases (T-d), and thermal recovery efficiency (TRE), with various operational conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that the 10 wt% Cu/(MS) catalyst was the most active because it has the greatest combustion efficiency to treat volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than Co/(MS) catalysts and Mn/(MS) catalysts. The 10 wt% Cu/(MS) catalyst used in an RCO system reaches over 95% CO2 yields under the heating zone temperature (T-set)= 400 degrees C, gas velocity (U-g) = 0.37 m/s, isopropyl alcohol (IPA) concentration = 200-400 ppm conditions. Moreover, the RCO system performed well in economic efficiency with the RCO with in terms of TRE, T-d and pressure drop. The TRE ranged from 90.4% to 94.6% and T-d ranged from 14.0 to 34.2 degrees C under various conditions at T-set =300-450 degrees C. Finally, the results of the stability test demonstrated that the catalyst was very stable at various U-g values and various T-set values. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.