Looking at the future of chemical production through the European Roadmap on science and technology of catalysis : the EU effort for a long-term vision

This Essay presents in short the initiative of the European Commission to strengthen the activities in the area of catalysis, a key technology for a sustainable future. In particular, this Essay discusses the thematic European Cluster on Catalysis and its main output: The European Roadmap on Science and Technology of Catalysis. Between the main drivers for the sustainable future of chemical and energy vectors, production of the following aspects have been identified: 1) the change in the energy–chemistry nexus, and the need to move to a new sustainable energy scenario and of enabling long-distance (world scale) trading of renewable energy, 2) the change to a new vision for refineries, bio-refineries, and bio-factories, 3) methanol, as key chemical at the crossover of new energy–chemistry nexus, 4) the new possibilities by exploiting shale-gas, and bio-gas-based chemistry, and 5) solar-driven chemistry. To address this changing scenario, the Roadmap has identified a series of grand-challenges for catalysis, discussed in terms of the strategic research agenda and implementation plans: 1) catalysis to address the evolving energy and chemical scenario, 2) catalysis for a cleaner and sustainable future, and 3) addressing catalysis complexity—the latter being divided in three sub-topics (advanced design of novel catalysts, understanding catalysts from a molecular to a material scale, and expanding catalysis concepts).