Table 1 E factors (tonnes of waste generated per tonne of product manufactured [7] Industry segment Annual product tonnage E factor 6 8 Oil refining 10 –10 Approx. 0. 1 4 6 Bulk chemicals 10 –10

Nowadays, the chemical industry is under increased pressure to develop cleaner production processes and technologies. Much effort is devoted to the development of heterogeneous catalysts and their application in industrial-scale organic synthesis. This handbook concentrates on current attempts, focusing on fine chemical production. With contributions from an impressive array of international experts, this is essential reading for everyone interested in the advances in this field.

The sector of fine chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes and pigments, fragrances and flavours, intermediates, and performance chemicals is growing fast. For obvious reasons chemistry is a key to the success in developing new processes for fine chemicals. However, as a rule, chemists formulate results of their work as recipes, which usually lack important information for process development. Fine Chemicals Manufacture, Technology and Engineering is intended to show what is needed to make the recipe more useful for process development purposes and to transform the recipe into an industrial process that will be safe, environmentally friendly, and profitable.The goal of this book is to form a bridge between chemists and specialists of all other branches involved in the scale-up of new processes or modification of existing processes with both a minimum effort and risk and maximum profit when commercializing the process. New techniques for scale-up and optimization of existing processes and improvements in the utilization of process equipment that have been developed in recent years are presented in the book.

The catalytic epoxidation of olefins plays an important role in the industrial production of several commodity compounds, as well as in the synthesis of many intermediates, fine chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The scale of production ranges from millions of tons per year to a few grams per year. The diversity of catalysts is large and encompasses all the known categories of catalyst type: homogeneous, heterogeneous, and biological. This book summarizes the current status in these fields concentrating on rates, kinetics, and reaction mechanisms, but also covers broad topics including modeling, computational simulation, process concepts, spectroscopy and new catalyst development. The similarities and distinctions between the different reaction systems are compared, and the latest advances are described. Comprehensive listing of epoxide products Broad comparison of turnover frequencies of homogeneous, hetergeneous, main-group, biomimetic and biological catalysts Analysis of the general strengths and weaknesses of varied catalytic systems Detailed description of the mechanisms of reaction for classical and emerging catalysts

Catalysts are now widely used in both laboratory and industrial-scale chemistry. Indeed, it is hard to find any complex synthesis or industrial process that does not, at some stage, utilize a catalytic reaction. The development of homogeneous transition metal catalysts on the laboratory scale has demonstrated that these systems can be far superior to the equivalent heterogeneous systems, at least in terms of selectivity. is an increasing interest in this field of research from both an Thus, there academic and industrial point of view. In connection with the rapid developments in this area, four universities from the E.E.C (Aachen, FRG; Liege, Belgium; Milan, Italy; and Lille, France) have collaborated to organise a series of seminars for high-level students and researchers. These meetings have been sponsored by the Commission of the E.E.C and state organizations. The most recent of these meetings was held in Lille in September 1985 and this book contains updated and expanded presentations of most of the lectures given there. These lectures are concerned with the field of homogeneous transition metal catalysis and its application to the synthesis of organic intermediates and fine chemicals from an academic and industrial viewpoint. The continuing petroleum crisis which began in the early 1970s has given rise to the need to develop new feedstocks for the chemical industry.

Catalysis is an important field of study in chemical engineering and chemistry due to its application in a vast number of chemical transformations. Traditionally, catalysts have been developed as homogeneous molecular species or as heterogeneous insoluble materials. While homogeneous catalysts are typically very active and selective, they are difficult to recover. Conversely, heterogeneous catalysts are easy to recover and reuse, but they generally are less selective. To address these issues, the immobilization of homogeneous catalyst analogs onto solid supports has been a subject of research for the past few decades. Nonetheless, the effects of immobilization are still not completely predictable, and so continued effort is required to develop new immobilized catalysts as well as to develop a better understanding of how different parameters affect catalytic behavior. This dissertation presents the synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of new immobilized catalysts for different applications. First, a solid base catalyst supported on silica was developed and studied in the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and carbon dioxide. Next, polymer and silica supported vanadium Schiff base catalysts were developed and evaluated for use in the oxidative kinetic resolution of alpha-hydroxy esters, an enantioselective reaction. Lastly, salen catalyst analogs with amine reactive functional groups were synthesized and characterized for grafting onto aminosilicas with different degrees of amine group isolation. The grafted catalysts were then tested to determine how catalyst spacing on the surface affects their behavior. Throughout the presentation of these results, comparisons are made amongst the new supported catalysts and relevant existing catalysts to discern general trends which could be applied to a wider range of immobilized catalysts. Finally, research opportunities for further improvements in these areas are suggested.

After three meetings in Poitiers, France, the 4th International Symposium on Heterogeneous Catalysis and Fine Chemicals was held under the auspices of the New Swiss Chemical Society in Basel, Switzerland. Fundamental as well as applied contributions on the use of heterogeneous catalysis for the preparation of fine chemicals were presented and discussed. The program consisted of 4 plenary lectures, 28 oral contributions and around 90 posters covering a broad range of reactions and catalytic aspects. 82 of these contributions are collected in the present proceedings, grouped into the following 8 topical areas: - Industrial and engineering problems (7 contributions) - Alkylation and acylation reactions (11 contributions) - Enantio- and diastereoselective hydrogenation reactions (9 contributions) - Chemoselective hydrogenation reactions (12 contributions) - Oxidation reactions (14 contributions) - Immobilized and encapsulated complex catalysts (12 contributions) - Zeolite and clay catalysts (12 contributions) - Miscellaneous topics (5 contributions)