Advancing Sustainable Technologies Through Catalysis

The long-standing basis for chemical manufacturing has been thermal conversion of fossil carbon to useful building blocks, eventually leading to functional and structural materials that have enhanced our standard of living tremendously at an enormous energy cost. As researchers in this area look to the future, we begin to imagine what chemical manufacturing will look like without fossil carbon as its origin. What types of new feedstocks will be available? What kinds of energy inputs will be used? How can materials be manufactured with a greatly reduced environmental footprint?

New types of catalysts and catalytic processes will be central to the future of a sustainable chemical industry. The 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis will bring together leaders and future leaders from academia, industry, and government laboratories, to discuss how we imagine this transition, and how to achieve it, through talks, posters, and intense discussion.