ABSTRACT

Catalysis and related technologies have a substantial impact in a broad range of processes and goods production, leading to an improvement in many areas of human activity, such as food production, health care, clothing, efcient energy use, new materials, transport, environmental protection, and waste reduction. In fact, improvement of the life standards in developed countries is closely related to the use of catalysts. Catalysis has a major impact on the chemical and related industries, forming the basis of about 90% of chemical manufacturing processes and more than 20% of the world’s industrial production (IEA 2013). Current catalyst market is around 10,000 million euros per year, and the value of products dependent on process catalysts, including petroleum products, chemicals, fragrances, pharmaceuticals, synthetic rubber and plastics, and many others, is said to be around 300,000-380,000 million euros per year (Yoneyama et al. 2010).