1. Introduction The European Union (EU) has invested heavily in palladium membrane technology, as reflected by numerous multi-million Euro research projects funded over the last decades. As a result, many research groups in Europe, both from academia and research institutes, have been leading the development of Pd membrane technology targeting hydrogen production, carbon capture and other...

Mankind’s ability to harness the power of biocatalysis dates back many thousands of years as evidenced by records that described the production of beer by the Sumerians. Over the next few thousand years many other uses of biocatalysis were discovered, mainly for the production of food and drinks such as cheese and wine. Yet it took until the 20th century for mankind to utilise biocatalytic...

Introduction “Green Catalysts for Energy Transformation and Emission Control” is book 1184 in the ACS Symposium Series, which has been published since 1974 and is peer-reviewed, consisting of original research papers and review articles. The purpose of the series is to publish comprehensive books based on current scientific research presented at ACS sponsored symposia. The content of this...

Published more than ten years after the first edition of “Handbook of Metathesis” (1) which enjoyed tremendous success, the new edition is a milestone in the development of metathesis chemistry. The three volumes are edited by the Nobel laureate Professor Robert H. Grubbs (California Institute of Technology, USA) in collaboration with an impressive panel of co-editors, all famous experts...

In the century since the first platinum gauze for nitric acid production was made by Johnson Matthey, the demand for nitric acid has increased considerably with its vast number of applications: from fertiliser production to mining explosives and gold extraction. Throughout the significant changes in the industry over the past 100 years, there has been continual development in Johnson Matthey’s gauze technology to meet the changing needs of customers: improving efficiency, increasing campaign length, reducing metal losses and reducing harmful nitrous oxide emissions. This article reviews the progress in gauze development over the past century and looks at recent developments.

This themed issue focuses on ‘Sustainable Industry’ from the perspective of research advances and technological solutions. Starting with a high level policy context, it is clear that the roles and responsibilities of industry are broader than technology and go way beyond what happens within industry. People have been thinking about the issues and options encompassed in the word...

Global methanol production in 2016 was around 85 million metric tonnes (1), enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every twelve minutes. And if all the global production capacity were in full use, it would only take eight minutes. The vast majority of the produced methanol undergoes at least one further chemical transformation, more likely two or three before being turned into a final product. Methanol is one of the first building blocks in a wide variety of synthetic materials that make up many modern products and is also used as a fuel and a fuel additive. This paper looks at the last 100 years or so of the industrial history of methanol production.

Introduction The Royal Society of Chemistry Faraday Discussions are a series of meetings focusing on rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry. Contrary to typical conferences, Faraday Discussions rely on the active participation of speakers and audience alike. Topics for each session are based on new research papers submitted specifically for the meeting. Audience participation is...

The majority of books and reviews on any area of technology development tend to focus on information published in the journal literature; reviews of the patent literature are more often confined to the prior art sections of patent documents. However, patents remain one of the best sources of detailed technical information, particularly where the invention may have commercial significance,...

Batteries are present in all areas of life, from electronic devices to electric cars, fork lift trucks and more. But there is a lack of awareness that runs even to the highest levels of the complexities in the battery industry: the chemistries; the applications; the cell sizes; the risks; the legislation. As uptake of batteries grows across many applications there will inevitably be growth...

Introduction The International Workshop on Plasmas for Energy and Environmental Applications (IWPEEA) was held in Liverpool, UK, between 21st–24th August 2016. The event was organised by the Technological Plasmas Research Group at the University of Liverpool, UK. It included five plenary lectures, four invited lectures, 36 oral and 42 poster presentations. The workshop brought together...

Introduction “Surgical Tools and Medical Devices” 2nd Edition provides a comprehensive overview containing 23 chapters written by experts in each field. The chapters are not grouped together according to specific topics, but rather each chapter covers a range of aspects of surgical tools, medical device manufacturing and characterisation, surface engineering and interactions between...

John M. Woodley is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Originally from the UK, his research focuses on the relatively new field of bioreaction engineering, using chemical engineering to design and implement the next generation of chemical processes with enzymatic and microbial catalysts....

The RSC Catalysis Series book: “Heterocycles from Double-Functionalized Arenes: Transition Metal Catalysts” by Xiao-Feng Wu and Matthias Beller consists of four chapters covering about 300 pages. The Synthesis of Heterocycles Heterocycles are always an interesting class of compounds due to their immense number of applications in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and fine chemicals. Unlike the...

Introduction The 24th North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society (NAM) was held from 14th to 19th June 2015 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, with the Pittsburgh-Cleveland Catalysis Society as hosts (1). This biennial meeting is recognised as the premier conference about the science and applications of catalysis and catalytic processes and as...

Introduction “Advances in Biofuel Production: Algae and Aquatic Plants” is a compilation of papers that have previously been published elsewhere, presented as 12 chapters. These have been edited by Barnabas Gikonyo, whose research interests range from the application of biocompatible polymeric materials for the repair of spinal cord injuries to the development of non-food biofuels. The...

Johnson Matthey has a long history and track record of designing and supplying specialist coatings into a wide range of application areas and substrate types. A common theme is the requirement to deposit precise amounts of materials. This is key for expensive platinum group metals and for the resulting coating to provide a function such as catalytic, conductive, protective or optical....

This symposium held in Bad Harrenalb, Germany, from 3rd–5th September, 2017, specifically focused on modelling and numerical simulation in automobile exhaust-gas aftertreatment. The purpose of the workshop was to support the exchange of state-of-the-art modelling and simulation techniques and new approaches among researchers, scientists and engineers from industry and academia. The meeting had over 100 registered participants, about 45% from academia and 55% from industry. The scientific programme was composed of four tutorials, plus oral and poster presentations.

This report gives a summary of the oral presentations, which will be divided into five sessions: selective catalytic reduction (SCR), methane oxidation, diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particulate filter (DPF) and modelling and performance.

Introduction “Solid-State NMR in Zeolite Catalysis” was written by four professors from the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who have tremendous expertise in the fields of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (solid-state NMR) and heterogeneous catalysis. This book is Volume 103 in the series ‘Lecture Notes in Chemistry’ published by Springer. It...

1. Introduction The Carbon Dioxide Utilisation Summits are held twice per year, alternating between being hosted in a European location and in North America. They are organised by Active Communications International (ACI), Inc. This two-day event was held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 18th and 19th October 2017. The main aim of this Summit series is to bring together key players from industry,...