Encouraging innovation in catalysis

Catalysis plays a critical role in virtually every industry. Often it is the key to making an entirely new technology or breathing new life into an otherwise, mature technology. In addition to the continued needs for productivity improvements, environmental drives and heightened industrial safety add a new aspect to the importance of catalytic innovation. ABB Lummus Global, along with its many industrial partners, has a well-established, track record of fostering innovation in its many technologies. These innovations take form in many ways: (a) catalyst design, (b) advanced materials, (c) new process concepts, (d) engineering advances, and (e) novel uses of high throughput screening. Moving projects through the “technology pipeline” used to be done by brute force–using an army of scientists and engineers. Today that luxury no longer exists, and industry must embrace creative approaches to leverage their resources and accelerate the development and commercialization of new technology. This paper presents specific examples of innovation at Lummus. These examples will, once again, reinforce the point that catalytic innovation is clearly an important vehicle to continued advancement of society.