Heterogeneous catalytic transformations for environmentally friendly production

Progress towards environmentally responsible processing is marked by the el imination of waste and by-product generation and reduced dependence on haza rdous chemicals. The key to both is often provided by catalytic as alternat ives to stoichiometric processes. Heterogeneous catalysis,long established in bulk-chemicals processing, is b eginning to make inroads into the fine-chemicals industry also. This tenden cy is helped by the availability of novel catalytic materials and modern te chniques of creating and investigating specific active sites on catalyst su rfaces. In this overview, examples from the areas of acid/base and redox ca talysis are chosen to illustrate the trend from non-catalytic to catalytic processes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.