Experiments were conducted in a continuous flow reactor at room temperature to evaluate the elimination of low-concentration toluene in the gas phase to verify if fly-ash products from biomass combustion in an ozonation system could be used in the removal of volatile organic compounds. The fly-ash products from pure biomass combustion (Ash(100)) demonstrated the highest ozonation activities upon the removal of low-concentration toluene (1.5 ppmv), followed by the fly-ash products from co-combustion (Ash(30)) and the coal combustion (Ash(0)). Kinetic experiments showed that the activation energy of the toluene elimination process was substantially reduced with the use of ozone and the reaction intermediates, such as formic acids, aldehydes, etc. Results also showed that the intermediates were reduced with increasing humidity level. The combined use of fly-ash products and zeolite 13X enhanced the removal of toluene to above 90% and suppressed the release of residual ozone and intermediates by holding them in the adsorbed phase. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.