The commercially most relevant field of application for HCl regeneration processes is the recovery of HCl from waste pickle liquors from carbon-steel pickling lines. Other applications include the production of metal oxides such as, but not limited, to AlO and MgO, as well as rare-earth oxides, by pyrohydrolysis of aqueous metal chloride or rare-earth chloride solutions.
A number of different process routes are available. The most widely used is based on pyrohydrolysis and adiabatic absorption of hydrogen chloride in water, a process invented in the 1960s. However tightening environmental standards and stringent air permit policies render it increasingly difficult to establish new pyrohydrolysis-based acid regeneration plants.