This work was carried out to study the inhibition mechanism of volatile corrosion inhibitors (VCIs) such as 2-hydrazinobenzothiazole (2-HBTA) on the corrosion of low carbon steel in industrial water by using polarization and mass loss measurement. It was found that 2-HBTA revealed good performance as inhibitor for low carbon steel corrosion in industrial water. After some time, the performance decreased due to the volatility of these kinds of inhibitors away from the open system unlike the closed system. The experimental data indicated that the inhibitive performance of 2-HBTA for low carbon steel was improved with increasing of concentration up to the critical concentration (4.24×10^(-3)M). The adsorption behavior of 2-HBTA was found to obey Langmuir’s adsorption isotherm. The thermodynamic parameters of adsorption process and activation energy were obtained from polarization technique. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to characterize the film formed on the surface. Box-Wilson statistical method was employed to correlate the results obtained, and the optimization of fluid velocity, temperature and concentration of inhibitor by using Box-Wilson statistical method was evaluated.