Catalysis is the number one technology in chemical industry and petroleum refi ning.
In the future one may reasonably expect that catalysis will be among the
leading solutions for meeting the new global and intimately related challenges of
environment and energy. The advantages of catalytic processes are due to the relatively
mild reaction conditions, their cost effi ciency, and their environmentally
friendly character.
Nevertheless, even if it has probably the longest history, heterogeneous catalysis,
which is the most commonly used among all the catalytic tools (the other ones
being homogeneous and enzymatic), still suffers from many drawbacks. Sometimes
it is not selective enough, which increases evolution of products involved in
green house effects (like CO 2 , NO x or particles), sometimes it requires high temperatures
which is energy demanding, sometimes its lifetime is too short which
is not economical, sometimes its regeneration procedures are diffi cult if not
impossible.