The conversion of trichloroethylene (TCE) vapor (1000 cm(3)/m(3)) in humid and dry conditions has been comparatively tested over several acidic catalists: HY zeolite, silica-alumina, tungsta-alumina, and pure gamma-alumina. Among them, alumina shows the higher activity in TCE decomposition to COx and HCl at lower temperature (total conversion around 820 K) and no deactivation phenomena occur at the laboratory scale time. Adding WO3 could even enhance catalytic activity. The use of alumina catalysts, although much less active than noble-metal containing catalysts, allows, in principle, the destruction of different chlorided organics and the recovery of HCl in a versatile authotermic process. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.