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design, it has now proved poseibleto oper- ate the system successfully without signi- ficant pressure drop over extended periods. The article describes some of the tests carried out and discusses the pros- pects of using such systems in practice. Another article, by Yuantao Ning, Zhenfen Yang and Huaizhi Zhao of the Institute of Precious metals, Kunming, Yunnan, China, discusses the structural recon- structions which occur in palladium-nickel alloy gauzes used to capture platinum lost from the catalytic gauzes used for am- monia oxidation in nitric acid production. In addition, a review is given of the book edited by George J. Antos, Abdullah M. Aitani and Jose M. Parera entitled "Cata- lytic Naphtha Reforming: Science and Technology" (Marcel Dekker, 1995) and an update is given on the use of fuel cells. Both issues also contain the customary abstracts of papers and patents on the uses of platinum-group metals in a variety of applications including catalysis.

Another publication by Jonson Matthey and obtainable from the same address which has recently reached my desk is "Platinum 1994: Interim Review". This is one of a series of such publications which details the markets in platinum metals: the supply and demand and the effects of pol- itical and commercial changes, etc., on the demand. I gathered many interesting snip- pets of information while reading it, includ- ing an estimate of a recovery of 35,000 ounces of platinum in 1994 in Western Europe from automobile exhaust cata- lysts, a business which is still in its infancy. The demand for palladium is increasing steadily, predominantly because ofthe use of palladium-containing catalysts by some European car manufacturers; the use in this region is expected to more than double

in anticipation of the introduction of stricter legislation in 1996. The trends in market prices of all the metals are discussed. One might be surprised to discover the very low prices of ruthenium and iridium compared with those of the other Pt group metals, particularly of rhodium, despite the scarc- ity of these two metals.

JULIAN ROSS

The Catalytic Process from Labora- tory to the Industrial Plant

A book of this title has been published by the Interdivisional Group of Catalysis of the Industrial Chemistry Division of the Ita- lian Chemical Society. Edited by Do- menico Sanfilippo, this book is the pro- ceedings of the Third Seminar of Catalysis held in Rimini in June 1994 with an orga- nising committee of Pio Forzatti, Do- menico Sanfilippo, Fabrizio Cavani, Vitto- rio Fattore, Lucio Forni, Guido Petrini and Elio Santacesaria in collaboration with the University of Bologna and Snamprogetti S.p.A. and with the support of a number of industrial organisations. This might give the impression that the book contains a series of papers on research results. This is far from the case. It is instead a series of articles describing steps in the scale-up of catalysts and catalytic processes after a catalyst has been identified. An introduc- tory chapter by the Editor is followed by chapters on the classification of industrial catalysts and catalysts for the petrochemi- cal industry (F. Cavani and F. Trifiro), cata- lyst preparation methods (C. Perego and P.L. Villa), catalyst characterization (G. Le- ofanti, G. Tozzola, M. Padovan, G. Petrini, S. Bordiga and A. Zecchina), laboratory reactors (L. Forni), laboratory plants for

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catalytic tests (L. Cavalli), the importance and significance of patents (V. Fattore), kinetic and transport phenomena (E. San- tacesaria, R. Forzatti and E. Tronconi), ap- proach to the industrial process (I. Miracca and R. Trotta), a case history, the synthesis and decomposition of MTBE (I. Miracca and R. Trotta), fixed-capital cost estimating (M. D'Adda) methodologies for economic and financial analysis (M.A. Solinas), scale-up of chemical reactors (G. Donati and R. Paludetto) and scale-up of catalyst production (N. Pernicone). The book is distinguished from many other books on catalysis by its wide-ranging subject mat- ter, many of the subjects discussed here being things that most catalytic scientists occasionally hear about but never see writ- ten down: mattersthat are more commonly let slip by industrial colleagues as asides at conferences, such as the pros and cons of patenting, the factors determining the economics of a catalytic process, etc. An- other distinguishing factor is that many of the authors are practising Italian catalytic scientists, technologists and engineers who have a myriad of experience between them of the subjects about which they write. And finally, another feature is that there may, I understand, still be a number of free copies of the book available for distribution. The book is likely to be very valuable as a text-book for academics who teach courses in applied catalysis but also as a training manual for young scientists and engineers without a background in the subjects covered here who are about to start work on catalysis in practice.

JULIAN ROSS

Homogeneous Catalysis in Water

With the title "Breakthrough in Homo- geneous Catalysis in Water", the Dutch weekly publication Chemisch Weekblad (21st January 1995) has described work on water-soluble homogeneous catalysts carried out by Georgios Papadogianakis who is working as post-doctoral re- searcher in the group of Roger Sheldon and Leen Maat at Delft Technical Univer- sity. He has succeeded in carbonylating an alcohol in water using a palladium complex as catalyst. He is studying the carbonyla- tion of carbohydrate molecules using the molecule 5-hydroxy-methylfural as model reagent and has found a water soluble palladium complex (palladium trisulpho- nate-phenyl-phosphine with a strong acid as co-catalyst at 70°C and 5 bar pressure) that converts this molecule selectively into 5-formyl-furan-2-acetic acid. If the coordi- nating acid has a strongly coordinating anion, the CH2OH group is reduced to CH3 and the product is 5-methyl-furfural.

If the former reaction could be carried out with a carbohydrate, then interesting monomers for polyesters and polyamides would be formed which would be biode- gradable natural materials. The work has been sponsored by the Dutch Innovative Research Programme (lOP) on Carbohy- drates and will be continued with financial support from Hoechst.

Hydroformylation Catalysts

The latest issue of Chemik (48 (1995) 56) contains a paper by W. Tic and A. Zoltanski entitled "Deactivation of rhodium hydroformylation catalysts and methods for their regeneration". In this paper the authors review and discuss the causes for

applied catalysis A: General Volume 125 No. 1 - - 2 7 April 1995