Catalysts – The Key to Making Better Use of Natural Resources and Combating CO2 Emissions
Process catalysts manufactured by Johnson Matthey are used to convert a range of hydrocarbons into valuable products.
Catalysis plays a vital role in many developing markets in the 21st century and is key to many technologies that will help us make better, more efficient use of finite and increasingly expensive natural resources such as oil and natural gas.
Johnson Matthey manufactures a wide range of chemical process catalysts. These catalysts are intrinsically sustainable, accelerating the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed. They allow our customers to operate their processes with high efficiency to produce an optimum amount of desired product with the minimum use of resources.
With oil prices at record highs, the oil industry is seeking to use oil to make high value products such as transportation fuels. As a result, technologies for converting alternative feedstocks (such as coal and natural gas) into chemical products become viable. Catalysis is key in all of these processes and Johnson Matthey has world leading catalyst products and technologies for turning a range of hydrocarbons into valuable products.
With new reserves becoming harder to find and high oil prices, heavier, dirty crude is being processed by oil refineries around the world. This crude oil requires more hydrogen to crack and purify it and Johnson Matthey also holds a leading position in catalysts for hydrogen production.
And high prices of both oil and natural gas mean that it is now economic to process oil and gas that is contaminated with mercury and chlorine as well as sulphur. Johnson Matthey supplies the high technology absorbents used to remove these contaminants.
Hydrocarbon fuels such as oil, gas and coal are polluting at the point of use – no matter how clean and efficient a combustion process is, the carbon contained in a hydrocarbon fuel ends up as CO2. As global awareness of climate change increases, there is growing interest in clean energy technologies that use hydrogen obtained from hydrocarbons to generate electricity and in capturing and sequestering the CO2.
This worldwide focus on CO2 emissions is creating growth opportunities for Johnson Matthey. Our expertise in catalysts, high technology absorbents and process technologies could provide enabling technology for the generation of hydrogen and sequestration of CO2 in a global marketplace driven by new priorities for energy efficiency.
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