Steam reforming of methane is a vital unit operation in the manufacture of synthesis gas (or syngas). Johnson Matthey Process Technologies is a leader in reforming technology for the industrial production of hydrogen, methanol and ammonia to the chemicals and oil and gas sectors. Many of the key innovations in the development of the early reformers and catalysts have taken place in Billingham, UK (Figure 1) by ICI Agricultural Division and later Johnson Matthey Process Technologies. This paper explores the history of the site at which industrial reforming technology was established in 1936 and recounts the technological milestones of the engineers’ work on catalysts, reformer design and operation since that time.

The post Eighty Years of Steam Reforming appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Published more than ten years after the first edition of “Handbook of Metathesis” (1) which enjoyed tremendous success, the new edition is a milestone in the development of metathesis chemistry. The three volumes are edited by the Nobel laureate Professor Robert H. Grubbs (California Institute of Technology, USA) in collaboration with an impressive panel of…

The post “Handbook of Metathesis” 2nd Edition appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

John M. Woodley is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Originally from the UK, his research focuses on the relatively new field of bioreaction engineering, using chemical engineering to design and implement the next generation of chemical processes with enzymatic and…

The post In the Lab: Bioreaction Engineering for the Implementation of Biocatalysis in Industry appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

The RSC Catalysis Series book: “Heterocycles from Double-Functionalized Arenes: Transition Metal Catalysts” by Xiao-Feng Wu and Matthias Beller consists of four chapters covering about 300 pages. The Synthesis of Heterocycles Heterocycles are always an interesting class of compounds due to their immense number of applications in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and fine chemicals. Unlike the classical methods…

The post “Heterocycles from Double-Functionalized Arenes: Transition Metal Catalyzed Coupling Reactions” appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Mankind’s ability to harness the power of biocatalysis dates back many thousands of years as evidenced by records that described the production of beer by the Sumerians. Over the next few thousand years many other uses of biocatalysis were discovered, mainly for the production of food and drinks such as cheese and wine. Yet it…

The post Guest Editorial: Biocatalysis and Pharmaceuticals appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

The use of enzymes for the asymmetric reduction of activated C=C double bonds is a viable and straightforward alternative to chiral hydrogenation. The number of isolated and characterised double bond reductases (ENEs) has grown significantly over the past fifteen years and the use of this enzyme class in organic synthesis has increased accordingly. In this article we examine the ENE-catalysed reduction of a number of activated alkenes using enzymes from Johnson Matthey’s collection. These reductions proved to be scalable: they can be run at high substrate concentration, delivering the reduced product in high yield and high chemical purity.

The post Reduction of Activated Carbon-Carbon Double Bonds using Highly Active and Enantioselective Double Bond Reductases appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Introduction The book describes an overview of the various arylation methods under metal-catalysed conditions. There are nine chapters covering about 500 pages which are: ‘Cross-Coupling Arylations: Precedents and Rapid Historical Review of the Field’ ‘Amine, Phenol, Alcohol, and Thiol Arylation’ ‘Decarboxylative Coupling Techniques’ ‘C–H Bond Activation for Arylations’ ‘Conjugate Additions’ ‘Imine Arylations – Synthesis of…

The post “Catalytic Arylation Methods: From the Academic Lab to Industrial Processes” appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Barring the presence of significant amounts of impurities, an important cause of thermoelectric inhomogeneity and therefore calibration drift of platinum-rhodium thermocouples at high temperatures is the vaporisation and transport of the oxides of Pt and Rh, which causes local changes in wire composition. By examining the vapour pressures of Pt and Rh oxides and their temperature dependence, it is shown that at a given temperature there is an optimal wire composition at which evaporation of the oxides has no effect on the wire composition, provided the vapour does not leave the vicinity of the wire. This may also have applications for Pt-Rh heater elements.

The post Optimising Platinum-Rhodium Thermocouple Wire Composition to Minimise Composition Change Due to Evaporation of Oxides appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Natural gas is of increasing interest as an alternative fuel for vehicles and stationary engines that traditionally use gasoline and diesel fuels. Drivers for the adoption of natural gas include high abundance, lower price and reduced greenhouse gas emissions compared to other fossil fuels. Biogas is an option which could reduce such emissions further. The regulations which cap emissions from these engines currently include Euro VI and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) greenhouse gas legislation. The regulated emissions limits for methane, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) for both stoichiometric and lean burn compressed natural gas engines can be met by the application of either palladium-rhodium three-way catalyst (TWC) or platinum-palladium oxidation catalyst respectively. The drivers, policy and growth of this Pd based catalyst technology and its remaining challenges to be overcome in terms of cost and catalyst deactivation due to sulfur, water and thermal ageing are described in this short review.

The post Methane Emission Control appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.