GABRIELE CENTI
Industrial Chemistry University of Messina, Italy

Chemical production is in a transition phase to move beyond the use of fossil resources as main raw materials and energy source (1). There are various driving elements for this transition. A relevant aspect is that renewable energies will soon become more economics than energy from fossil fuels, as indicated in recent reports by International Energy Agencies (2). Due to energy-chemistry nexus, and the changes in refinery associated to energy transition, there is the need to reconsider the actual (nearly exclusive) use of fossil resources for chemical production. In parallel, a change in the business model for chemical production is emerging: from the actual one (based on large plants and centralized production, with worldwide import of raw materials) to a distributed production model, based on the use of local resources (renewable energy and alternative C-sources). This emerging transition goes beyond the use of biomass sources for chemical production, which has largely dominated discussion in the last decade. One of the consequence, is that there is the need of new catalysis approaches to realize this new chemistry (3).

An effort to looks to catalysis for future chemica ...