University of Cape Town centre beefs up its pursuit of catalysts

'State of the art' is a catchphrase that one suspects gets thrown around way too carelessly. But by all accounts, two new pieces of equipment recently acquired by the HySA/Catalysis Centre of Competence (HySA, Hydrogen South Africa), in partnership with UCT's Centre for Catalysis Research, are more than worthy of such exalted praise. The machines are an ISYNTH catalyst-preparation robot, produced by Swiss company Chemspeed... Read the complete article

About University of Cape Town, Chemical Engineering (Centre for Catalysis Research, HySA/Catalysis Competence Centre) The Department of Chemical Engineering's tradition of excellence is reflected in the fact that almost a third of South Africa's chemical engineers graduate from UCT. As the custodian of the largest national research programme, the department is recognised as the leading academic department of its kind in Africa. Centre for Catalysis Research - Catalysts are of crucial importance to the (petro-)chemical industry as these materials are essential for mediating more than 90% of all industrial chemical processes worldwide. The impact of catalysis results not only from its capacity to facilitate chemical reactions, but also its propensity to improve the selectivity of catalysed transformations. Increasing the selectivity reduces by-product formation, resulting in chemical processes of superior environmental performance. The Centre for Catalysis Research within the Department of Chemical Engineering concentrates its efforts on heterogeneous catalysis with particular focus on the South African Chemical Industry.