Frontiers Award goes to those paving the way to a more efficient, sustainable chemistry

The laureates “have led global thinking in the three main research areas devoted to understanding and applying catalysis, covering the entire spectrum of this fundamental field,” said committee member Hongkun Park, Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Their combined output has paved the way for a more efficient, sustainable chemistry.

Porous materials for the production of greener fuels

Avelino Corma (Polytechnic University of Valencia-CSIC) has spearheaded development of solid catalysts from porous materials and holds more than 100 patents, with applications that are now being used to improve the efficiency of chemical processes and cut back on pollutant emissions in the production of fuels, plastics, cosmetics and food.

“More than 22 plants around the world now produce gasoline more efficiently, with greater energy efficiency, thanks to a catalyst developed in my research,” proclaimed the laureate.

In addition, many industrial chemical processes are starting to replace fossil fuels with biomass – obtained, for example, from municipal, agricultural or forestry organic waste – through reactions achieved with solid catalysts derived from advances led by Corma.

“We are making great strides towards a more sustainable chemistry thanks to this technology, with catalysts that allow us to reduce the use of fossil hydrocarbons and also prevent the release of pollutants through vehicle combustion and factory chimneys.”

For the laureate, moreover, this is just the start of a technological revolution that in coming years could be a powerful transformative tool in the fight against climate change: “I believe catalysts will enable us to capture CO2 from the atmosphere or biomass on the way to developing fuels and chemical processes with far less environmental impact.”

Catalysts to produce medicines against cancer, HIV and hepatitis

The metal-based catalysts developed by John Hartwig have changed the way drugs are manufactured for various conditions. “There’s a whole series of medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for diseases like hepatitis C, HIV, depression, psoriasis and leukemia, that rely on the availability of molecules created from reactions developed in my lab,” the new laureate explains.

Hartwig has since turned his attention to the polymers making up the plastics we use daily, trying to deconstruct their bonds and isolate their components so that they can serve to make new plastic. “Right now plastic is recycled mechanically,” he points out, “but this new method would be chemical recycling, perhaps a future solution to manage the huge amount of plastic waste we generate.”

Observing chemical reactions atom by atom

Helmut Schwarz (Technical University of Berlin) has succeeded in analyzing gas-phase chemical reactions atom by atom, allowing him to elucidate their functioning with an unprecedented level of detail, a huge breakthrough that has reduced waste generation in industrial processes and opens the door to the development of new applications for catalysis in various fields.

Despite his basic science approach, Schwarz’s discoveries have ended up transforming major industrial processes. A case in point is the German factory Degussa, a precious metal refinery that produces a hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen compound used in a large number of industrial applications. The factory developed a way to produce the compound, coupling methane with ammonia by means of a catalyst. But the coal by-product fouled the catalyst and eventually deactivated it.  Schwarz was able to uncover key details of how the reaction worked and propose a modification to the catalyst to prevent soot from forming. “So there we have a practical example of how basic research ended up helping a company to substantially improve a process,” says Schwarz.