Catalysts Supplier

Here at Thermograde, specialist catalysts suppliers, we produce catalysts that can work with a wide range of specific applications, depending on the kind of industry you’re in. Quite simply, a catalyst is just a substance that can increase the rate of a reaction, with the catalyst itself remaining unchanged at the end of this reaction.

Only a tiny amount of catalyst is generally required in order to increase the rate of reaction between bigger amounts of reactants – and different catalysts will help support different reactions. Catalysts simply increase the rate of any given reaction without being spent, just by lowering the activation energy required.

So what can be achieved? If you have an iron catalyst, for example, you can make ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. A platinum catalyst will also make ammonia from these two gases, while vanadium oxide can be used to help make sulfuric acid. When it comes to industry, catalysts are vital because they can be used to drive down costs.

Catalysts such as ethylene, butadiene and propylene can be used in the petrochemical industry, assisting in the production of grades of polypropylene, the production of aromatics and so on.

Others can be used for elective hydrogenation and oxidation processes, important for the production of certain chemicals used in the production of sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, phthalic anhydride, fatty alcohols and more.

Process chemicals have a vital role to play in the running of the economy, with IHS Markit noting that over 90 per cent of chemical manufacturing processes and over 20 per cent of industrial products use underlying catalytic steps. For example, petroleum refining (the biggest source of industrial products) is predominantly made up of catalytic processes.

Predictions from the organisation include that increased usage of conversion capacities and refineries and more consumption of corresponding catalysts will be seen in the next five years, as the need to control greenhouse gases and emissions sees fuel regulations tightened up.

For a lot of catalysts, strongest growth in demand is in regions other than Japan, Western Europe and North America. Emerging markets like the Middle East, Other Asia and China are now important markets for process catalysts and this shows no signs of stopping in the future.