An effective and environmentally benign preparation of 2, 2-dichloroaldehydes has been achieved by chlorination of aldehydes with Cl2 (g) in CH2Cl2, using 2, 6-lutidine hydrochloride as recoverable catalyst. Remarkable qualities of the process are: easy work up, high purity products, HCl as the only 'waste'stream and inherent bias to the scale up.