Research and Markets, leading source for international market research and
market data, has announced the addition of Frost + Sullivan's new report "Nanocatalysts--Application
Impact Analysis (Technical Insights)" to their offering.
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Nanocatalysts--Application
Impact Analysis provides an overview of the developments taking place within
this industry together with an application analysis of the current market and
technological trends. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts
thoroughly examine the following market sectors: chemical and polymer, petrochemicals,
alternative energy, environment, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Exciting Opportunities for Nanocatalysts in This New Era of Nanoscience
Catalyzing reactions at the nanoscale can affect a variety of applications
in domains such as refining of oil, fuel cells, renewable energy, ground water
remediation, catalytic converters, chemical and polymer manufacturing, pharmaceutical
and biomedical applications, food processing, paper and pulp recycling, and
textile production. Nanocatalyst technology could well be the solution to the
many ensuing challenges that range from process efficiencies to breadth of product
applications. While established industries such as oil and gas have been slow
in integrating nanocatalysts into their processes, new and emerging application
in alternative energy and environment are looking to get the technology on board
from the early stages of product development. In the petrochemical industry,
while most of the innovation is happening in the labs, corporate developments
have been relatively few in number. This can be attributed to the fact that
most corporate involvement in this field is mature in terms of technology adoption
and financial investments that have been made in this field over the past decades.
Incorporating new nanocatalyst technology into the mainstream production would
certainly take a few more years to cover the wide range of sub-sectors. Currently,
the growing focus is on reducing air and water pollution through stricter regulations
and viable alternate energy sources that will boost the uptake of nanocatalyst
compounds in the early stages of process design for the emerging technologies.
“Employing nanocatalysts is turning into an important norm for industrial
chemical processes,” say the analysts of this research. “It is becoming
clearer that nanocatalysts enable greater efficiency and productivity and therefore
can lower production costs.” Since catalysis at the nanoscale is efficient,
it is anticipated that nanocatalysts could bring in cost reductions of up to
70% in some manufacturing processes. Moreover, nanocatalysts are highly selective
and this results in lesser amounts of byproducts. Absence or reduced amounts
of byproducts can in turn decrease the cost of recycling and purification in
the reaction processes.
Despite several factors propelling the development of nanocatalysts and their
adoption in numerous applications, technological challenges that the sector
is yet to address include maintaining nanocatalyst stability and activity, agglomeration
of nanoparticles, control of the size nanoclusters, and reusability of nanocatalysts.
“Since nanotechnology is still in the early stages of development, considerable
uncertainty persists in the existing regulations for development of nanomaterials
and possibly challenge the growth of the nanacatalyst industry,” explain
the analysts. “Further, high costs that are typically synonymous with
new technologies could also impact nanocatalyst applications.” Stringent
environmental regulations imposed on oil and gas and chemical manufacturers
has also fueled the growth of nanocatalysts in developing a clean and green
environment by lessening the emission of toxic gases into the environment, in
addition to treating wastewater effluents released from industries. “Growing
demand and stringent ecological standards for manufacturing require catalyst
with improved efficiency,” conclude the analysts. “However, it is
necessary to develop eco-friendly green catalysts that can do away with the
release of harmful materials and waste by-products of the chemical reactions
into surrounding environment.”