The electrolytic neutral pickling is a process used in the stainless steel industry to remove the oxide layer formed during annealing. In this process the stainless steel strip is pulled through a tank containing a sodium sulfate solution and a set of alternating electrodes, which indirectly polarize the strip surface and cause oxide dissolution under the influence of an electric current. State-of-the-art models describing this process assume concentration-independent electrochemical kinetics, which leads to the conclusion that homogeneous chemical reactions have a negligible influence on the final current density distribution. The present work revisits these conclusions by assessing the impact of concentration-dependent Butler-Volmer kinetics. Concentration distributions within the diffusion layer are estimated using a reduced boundary layer model for the ionic species at each electrode surface, each of these concentrations being two-way coupled with the electric potential in the bulk. Finally, the effects of different electrolyte compositions, homogenous chemical reactions, and flow conditions on the current density at the electrode surfaces are evaluated and discussed.