Through non-invasive monitoring the uptake of aniline vapor by active alumina in a differential adsorption bed (DAB) with near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (NIR-DRS), we have studied several features of the adsorption, including isotherm, kinetics and the chemical state of aniline molecules in aniline-alumina system. What is perhaps more important, since the information above is obtained synchronously, the proposed methodology could provide information about the type of adsorption (chemical or physical adsorption), the change of chemical state of aniline in the system during the adsorption process, whether the chemical adsorption and physical adsorption took place simultaneously, the rate of the chemical and physical adsorption, and so on.