An advanced active power filter for the compensation of instantaneous harmonic current components in nonlinear current load is presented in this paper. A novel signal processing technique using an adaptive neural network algorithm is applied for the detection of harmonic components generated by three-phase nonlinear current loads and this method can efficiently determine the instantaneous harmonic components in real time. The control strategy of the switching signals to compensate current harmonics of the three-phase inverter is also discussed and its switching signals are generated with the space voltage vector modulation scheme. The validity of this active filtering processing system to compensate current harmonics is substantiated on the basis of simulation results.