Reductive dechlorination is degradation of chlorinated organic compounds by chemical reduction with release of inorganic chloride ions by reductive dehalogenases. In a biological context chlorine behaves similarly to other atoms in the halogen chemical series, and thus reductive dechlorination can be considered to fall within a somewhat broader class of biological reactions known as reductive dehalogenation reactions, in which the removal of a halogen substituent from an organic molecule occurs with a simultaneous addition of electrons to the molecule. This can be further subdivided into two types of reaction processes, the first of which, hydrogenolysis, is the replacement of the halogen atom with a hydrogen atom. The second, vicinal reduction (sometimes called, dihaloelimination), involves the removal of two halogen atoms that are adjacent on the same alkane or alkene molecule, leading to the formation of an additional carbon-carbon bond.

Reductive dechlorination is often catalyzed by certain species of bacteria. Sometimes the bacterial species are highly specialized for organochlorine respiration and even a particular electron donor, as in the case of Dehalococcoides and Dehalobacter. In other examples, such as Anaeromyxobacter, bacteria have been isolated that are capable of using a variety of electron donors and acceptors, with a subset of possible electron acceptors being organochlorines. These reactions depend on a molecule which tends to be very aggressively sought after by some microbes, vitamin B12.