If you go to:
www.wirenet.org/technical/abstract/abstract.cfm
and type cleaning steel in the Title Contains box and click on the Submit Query button,you will find an abstract of a paper (ID 2695) titled Cleaning steel wire without acid by Klaus H. Oehr and Reinhold Roth, of the DynaMotive Corp. in Vancouver, Canada in 1995.
The paper presented at WAI 65th Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA and was published in Wire Journal International, May 1996 (Page 100)
If you click on "Detail" you will find the following abstract:
DynaPower is an electrolytic cleaning process that replaces acid pickling for the removal of oxides and lubricants from metal surfaces using ordinary salt water as an electrolyte. The process saves $16.35/ton, generates no liquid effluent, and reduces sludge by 40 percent, as compared with acid pickling which produces and estimated 55 million tons of liquid waste per year. The process produces a more uniform metal surface and the micro roughness can be easily controlled. Other benefits include no entrapped hydrogen to reduce metal strength. The surface is also less susceptible to rusting.
If this looks interesting to you, you can purchase the paper. This is the only reference I have found so far.
It seems that DynaMotive Corp.,
www.dynamotive.com/ sold this part of their business in 2002 so you might have to contact them to find out which company bought the technology.
Update March 01, 2006
We learned today that the company we were referencing is:
DynaPower Inc.
3650 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6S 2L2
Their phone/ fax numbers are:
Tel: (514) 369-4091
Fax: (514) 369-3940
and their web site is:
www.dynapowerinc.com/
Update February 23, 2008
It is also possible to use a Plasmait plasma surface cleaner:
www.plasmait.com/index.php?page=5
Kindest regards,
Peter J. Stewart-Hay
Principal
Stewart-Hay Associates
www.Stewart-Hay.com 
