Reactive absorption (RA) is a unit operation comprising the absorption of gases in liquid solutions with simultaneous chemical reactions within a single apparatus. The role of RA as a core environmental protection process has grown up significantly, and nowadays, this technology belongs to the most important separation methods in the chemical process industry, among others, for gas treatment and purification, removal of harmful substances, as well as for the production of basic chemicals, e.g. sulphuric and nitric acid. This article provides a comprehensive review on current RA applications covering both industrial processes and research activities. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.