Industrial developments (1950-1999)

Abstract

Some 80% of chemical processes use catalysts whose sales are approximately $10¹⁰ but which is less than 1% of the revenue from the products they create! It is little wonder that there have been worldwide investments by both Governments and Industry in research in the field of catalysis and that the catalyst market is increasing at an annual rate of nearly 10%. The United Kingdom through its Foresight Challenge Initiative highlighted catalysis as a priority area for funding and from which emerged the Institute of Applied Catalysis (IAC) a partnership between Government, Industry and Universities and analogous to that which led almost simultaneously was created in the Netherlands, the National Institute for Catalysis Research (NIOC). In the USA a report was published as a result of a Workshop held in 1997 at the A.C.S. Headquarters in Washington outlining the future needs of the Chemical Industry in the area of Catalysis. Two major goals were delineated: (a) an acceleration of the catalyst development process and (b) the development of catalysts with selectivity approaching 100%. Catalysis was seen worldwide as a key to the future of the chemical industry and mankind with a recent Department of Energy (U.S.A.) initiative, the Catalysis Research Symposium held in New Mexico (Cat. Tech., 3, 42, 1999), drawing together the projects underway in the National Laboratories directed towards “supporting potential commercialization and/or eco-friendly chemistry”. It was recognised that catalysis needed to be promoted more aggressively in the USA if it was to improve its funding position.