Preface

Fine and specialty chemicals are essential for everything we do in our daily lives. These
chemicals cater to several key applications required for maintaining and enhancing our quality
of life, and will become increasingly important. The fine and specialty chemicals sector is
facing many challenges today for variety of reasons, such as fragmented capacity, relatively
low capital and technology intensity, faster erosion of margins due to commoditization of
products, the rising costs of raw materials and energy, and stricter environmental regulations.
These challenges also offer new opportunities to innovate and create a competitive edge.
Catalysis and catalytic processes are the keys for developing globally competitive and
environmentally benign methods of converting natural resources into fine and speciality
chemicals. Replacement of the stoichiometric reactions by the catalytic reactions, development
and implementation of new catalyst systems and technologies to make the processes
environmentally friendly, energy efficiency and being globally competitive are the needs of
the hour.
With this background, we have started a large and ambitious program entitled Indus Magic
(an acronym for innovate, develop and up-scale modular, agile, intensified and continuous
processes; see www.indusmagic.org for more information). CSIR-National Chemical
Laboratory (NCL), which is a premier research laboratory in the area of chemical and allied
sciences in India, is the nodal laboratory for executing the Indus Magic program. CSIR-NCL
interacts closely with the chemical industry in India and abroad and develops knowledge bases
and intellectual property to address relevant problems of this industry. As part of the Indus
Magic program, we work closely with the fine and specialty chemicals sector to identify
industry needs. The industrial catalysis and catalytic processes was identified as one of the key
needs and was incorporated as one of the major sub-programs of Indus Magic. We
organized a workshop on industrial catalysis and catalytic processes as part of this work
(see http://induscap.ncl.res.in for more information). The workshop brought together several
experts on industrial catalysis from research institutes, academia, and industry. This book
essentially originated from the Indus Cap workshop.
Catalysts (homogeneous or heterogeneous) reduce the activation energy barrier for
transformations and facilitate better control on selectivity. Therefore, the development and

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selection of the right catalyst can make a substantial impact on process viability and economics.
Besides the right catalyst, it is also essential to develop an appropriate reactor type and
process intensification strategies for effective translation of laboratory processes to practice.
Harnessing the full potential of catalysis and catalytic processes for sustainably making fine and
specialty chemicals requires coordinated effortsespecially through the dissemination of
knowledge on the fundamentals and practices of industrial catalysis and catalytic processes. This
book attempts to do this by focusing on fundamentals and applications of industrial catalysis
and catalytic processes employed in the manufacturing of fine and specialty chemicals. It also
highlights opportunities in existing technologies, as well as with industrial practices and real
life case studies. An attempt is made to provide an appropriate blend of academic, research, and
industrial-based information that is required for translating ideas into practice.
This book deals with specific aspects of catalysis and catalytic processes. Emphasis is given to
key aspects, including catalyst synthesis and characterization, selection of reaction media,
catalyst deactivation and regeneration, and catalytic reaction engineering. Application of
catalysis to specific areas relevant to fine and specialty chemicals sectors are discussed. The
material in this book has been arranged in two parts: fundamentals (Chapters 27), and
applications (Chapters 816). An attempt is made to provide a holistic overview of catalysis,
catalytic processes, and their implementation in manufacturing of fine and specialty chemicals.
Chapter 1 provides an overview and introduction to catalysis and catalytic processes. Aspects
covered in Part one (fundamentals) and Part two (applications) are briefly outlined here.
Part one of the book presents fundamentals of catalysis and reaction engineering. Key aspects
of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis are discussed. The emphasis is on presenting the
important, basic principles to industrial chemists and engineers. The basic principles are
illustrated with the help of some of the industrially important reactions, such as hydrogenation,
carbonylation, and hydroformylation. Aspects of kinetic modeling and of catalytic reactions are
also discussed and illustrated with examples. The subject of selecting and designing
reaction media is also included in this part (Chapter 6). The discussion includes catalysis in
unusual reaction media, such as ionic liquids and supercritical fluids, as well as their
applications to catalytic transformations. Important topics of catalyst synthesis and
characterization, as well as catalyst deactivation and regeneration, are discussed in separate
chapters (Chapters 4 and 5 respectively). Key aspects of catalytic reactions and reactor
engineering are presented in Chapter 7.
Part two of the book brings out various applications of catalysis and catalytic processes in
practice. Emphasis is on illustrating applications in manufacturing of API, perfumery, pesticides,
and other fine and specialty chemicals. Chapters 8 and 9 provide broad discussions on the
application of catalysis and catalytic processes to the fine and specialty chemicals sector. These
include various important reactions, such as hydrogenation, oxidation, various coupling
reactions, asymmetric hydrogenation, and rearrangement reactions. Use of ion exchange resins as

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catalysts for manufacturing fine and specialty chemicals is discussed in Chapter 10. Various
aspects, like reactor configurations, selection of resins, process integration, process separations,
and the environmental impact of using resins as catalysts, are included. The next five chapters
(Chapters 1115) present catalysis in specific sectors, such as API manufacturing, perfumery,
chemicals from renewable resources, carbonylations, hydroformylations and synthesis of
carbamates. These chapters provide a brief account on historical developments of catalysis in
respective applications, challenges and success stories, as well as its current status. Chapter 16
briefly discusses aspects of scale-up, illustrated by the examples of scaling up butylation and
organotin compounds. The discussion in the part two is organized in such a manner so as to be
useful to practicing chemists and engineers, as well as researchers working in these areas.
The last chapter (Chapter 17) summarizes the current status and outlines some thoughts on
the path forward. We hope that this book will stimulate further work on this very important
subject matter, from both industrial and scientific points of view.
Because the development of catalysis and catalytic process is a multi-disciplinary area, there is
no single book that can cater to the needs of practicing chemical technologists, process
development chemists, and research students working in this field. Here, we have attempted to
provide information ranging from the selection of suitable catalysts, to the development of
catalytic processes. This will be useful and relevant for applications to variety of chemistries
used in fine and speciality chemicals sector. For beginners, this book will provide an overview
of reaction engineering, industrial catalysis, catalysts synthesis, characterization, and the
applications used in the industrial processes for fine and speciality chemicals. We hope that this
book will be useful to anyone interested in industrial catalysis and catalytic processes; in
particular to practicing engineers, process chemists, R&D managers, and chemistry and
chemical engineering students working in catalysis area. All those involved in catalysis and
catalytic process development can also use this book as a reference.
We would like to acknowledge many people who have made this book possible. First of all, we
would like to thank all the contributors to this book. We are grateful to many of our students,
associates, colleagues and collaborators with whom we worked on different research and
industrial projects. We would also like to acknowledge financial support from CSIR for the
Indus Magic (CSC123) project that allowed us to undertake our work on catalytic processes,
and to develop this book. Many of our colleagues and students have contributed to this book in
different ways. We also wish to thank the editorial team at Elsevier for their patience and
understanding during the long process of developing this book.
Vivek V. Ranade and Sunil S. Joshi
Pune, November 2015