THE NEED for speed

Catalysts are an important part of virtually every industrial process, as any chemical engineer will testify. But their ubiquity in the chemical, petrochemical, refining, pharmaceutical and materials industries also makes them vital for the country's economy - according to the Department of Trade and Industry, up to a third of the UK's gross national product is generated by catalytic processes. It was this figure which lead to the foundation of one of the UK's newest research organisations - the Institute for Applied Catalysis (IAC).

The IAC was set up last year as a result of the government's `Foresight' exercise. The panel acknowledged the importance of catalysis, and also noted that the UK's research into catalyst science is extremely strong. There is an important gap in UKcatalyst research, however: it is lagging behind its Japanese, German and American competitors in researching how such knowledge should be applied in industry.

Processing problems

Finding new catalysts can pose as many problems as it solves. An effective support has to be found, that has no effect on, or even enhances, the catalyst's activity. New processing methods might be necessary. The catalyst might lead to a different mixture of by-products, or might be poisoned by compounds present in the product mixture. Areas such as these are the target for the IAC's research.

The IAC is unusual among research institutes because it doesn't physically exist. It is a `virtual institute' - a network of research projects across 21 university chemistry departments and 15 chemical engineering departments, overseen by three committees and administered by a secretariat run by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Each of the departments has offered research staff, as well as specialised equipment and expertise.The `virtual' option was chosen to save both time and money - no extra laboratories had to be built, there was no unseemly wrangling over the location, and work could begin immediately.

As well as the university partners, the chemical industry is also feeding its expertise into the centre. Eighteen companies are supporting the IAC with a mixture of funding, research facilities and staff. Ten of these are large firms, such as BP, Davy Process Technology, Glaxo Wellcome, ICI, and Johnson Matthey; the other eight, classed as small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are represented by an organisation known as SOCSA, the Specialised Organic Chemicals Sector Association.

On your marks, get set...

The IACis now on the verge of starting work, after its formal launch last September. Its funding mechanisms and committees are in place, its first technical programme is soon to be finalised, and preparations are about to begin for its initial research project.

The IAC is to be run as a non-profit making company, financed by `subscriptions' from industry and by government grants. Three committees will oversee its work - a management committee, headed by Keith Guy of Air Products; a technical committee, headed by Colin Gent of ICI Katalco, which is just putting the finishing touches to the Institute's technical research programme; and an education committee, headed by John Thomas of the University of Bath. The entire structure will be overseen by a director, but this position is, as yet, still vacant.

The university departments involved have submitted proposals for research into both applied catalysis and the chemical engineering associated with reactor design and configuration. So far, the technical committee has identified four areas of interest for the centre - local or in situ generation of hydrogen peroxide, acylation for the speciality organics sector; catalyst testing on the micro scale; and the influence of catalysts on polymer properties.

The institute will put out detailed technical requirements for the various departments working on the projects. For example, one project will focus on finding effective catalysts to activate molecular oxygen to perform selective oxidation to make products like 1,4-butanediol and methyl methacrylate. The catalyst will have to be a relatively simple, stable molecule, working below 400 degreesC, to avoid further oxidation, and at a rate above 3310-4 moles of product/g catalyst/hr. Finally, it must produce water, not CO2, as a co-product.

But the overall plan for the IAC is, along with its sister project, the LINK applied catalysis and catalytic processes programme, to boost competitiveness in the UK chemical industry. But perhaps paradoxically, the government is pinning its hopes on the pure scientists' enthusiasm to help it succeed. `Money alone is not enough,' comments science minister Ian Taylor.