An onboard refueling vapor recovery system (ORVR) is a vehicle fuel-vapor emission control system. It captures potentially harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during refueling. Without such a system, fuel vapors trapped inside gas tanks would be released into the atmosphere, each time the vehicle was refueled.
There are two types of vehicle fuel vapor emission control systems: the ORVR, and the older, less efficient "Stage II" vapor recovery system. An ORVR system has the added benefit of being able to retain those emissions, by delivering them to the vehicle's activated carbon-filled canister. It later then disposes of the vapors by adding them to the engine's inlet manifold during normal operation—and thus to the fuel/air mixture supplying the engine.
The goal behind implementing the ORVR system throughout the U.S. and other territories is to eventually make the Stage II systems obsolete.