As a safety director in the compressed gas industry, and having come from a significant background of research and academia, my thoughts are:

1) HCl gas is not reactive with the cylinder unless moisture has been allowed to interact with it. If it has been closed the entire time, its good.
2) there is no other source of contamination which would affect the gas.
3) DO NOT use the valve to regulate the flow of gas. These valves are ofthen designed to be fully open or fully closed.  Use a regulator appropriate to the corrosive gas.
4) use some form of backflow preventer to keep liquid out of the cylinder, as the cylinder will cool as it is used, creating a partial vacuum when use is stopped and the gas inside liquifies from the low temperature. If this sucks water back into the cylinder it will react, generating a lot of heat and causing the cylinder presure safeties to vent steam and HCl, potentially creating a recordable release.

Use all of the cylinder and dispose appropriately after the gas has been completely vented.  Cylkinder manufacturers generally do not want lecture bottles returned. We really don't like them....

Todd Perkins, BSc, MBA
Safety Director
Airgas Mid America

--- On Tue, 11/18/08, Alnajjar, Mikhail S  wrote:

> 
> UNOPENED lecture bottle of hydrogen chloride gas has been
> sitting in a
> storage room for THREE years.  Now, a researcher needs to
> you use it.
> What is the best action to take?  If you have experienced a
> similar
> situation, please let me know of your protocol.  Any
> suggestions will be
> appreciated.  Thanks
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Mikhail 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu]
> On Behalf Of
> Ralph Stuart
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:46 AM
> To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] JCHAS Access on ScienceDirect -
> Articles In Press
> 
> > >Were you aware that your journal is available
> online via  
> > ScienceDirect?  If you have not registered for online
> access, the  
> > instructions can be found on the division website at
> http://membership.acs.org/c/chas/ 
> >  .
> 
> The specific URL for these instructions is
> http://membership.acs.org/c/chas/admincurrent/jchas_access.html
> >
> > - Ralph
> 
> Ralph Stuart, CIH
> Environmental Safety Manager
> University of Vermont
> Environmental Safety Facility
> 667 Spear St. Burlington, VT  05405
> 
> rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**uvm.edu
> fax: (802)656-8682

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