Translating new materials discoveries in zeolite research to commercial manufacture

In this presentation I will attempt to describe the expansion of new materials in the microporous metal oxide world and then some of the boundary conditions which must be met in trying to scale them up. The field of zeolite and mesoporous materials has seen considerable numbers of new discoveries in recent years as the chemistries explored have continued to be creative. In what follows, I will survey some of the concepts used in arriving at new structures. Then I will follow-up with some views of issues that need to be faced in being able to generate these materials on a large scale and in an affordable fashion. This latter feature, of course, has some flexibility in terms of what the value of the process application will be, how strict the environmental regulations are in regard to both the process application and the catalyst production environment, and finally, costs of raw materials and production at the manufacturing site. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc.