Every year nearly Rs 50,000 crore of new chemical manufacturing capacities were added based on catalytic processes and more than 200 multinational companies competed in the global market. They include polymers, a range of speciality chemicals, consumer products, drugs and pharmaceuticals, which were making major socio-economic impact.

The future of industrial development would greatly depend on the ability of the scientific community to develop highly innovative catalysts to produce environmentally cleaner processes and products, said Surjeet Singh Barnala, Governor of Andhra Pradesh, who was inaugurating the First Indo-German Conference and 16th National Symposium on Catalysis, organised by the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and the Catalysis Society of India, in Hyderabad, today.

The finding of sizeable natural gas deposits along the AP coast would enable the state to achieve self-sufficiency in thermal power, energy for transport and domestic gas supplies. But a major spin-off opportunity would be the use of natural gas as feed-stock for bulk and speciality chemicals for producing drugs and pharmaceuticals, industrial and consumer products, Barnala said.

Dr K V Raghavan, Director, IICT, said the conference would focus on bringing together experts from various disciplines to develop methodologies and novel catalysts that could solve the problems being faced by the industry. He said IICT was trying to develop a catalytic process to produce hydrogen from water, which would be economical. The Institute had made some progress in this direction, he said.

Catalysis could play a major role in developing suitable technologies for producing downstream products for the Indian market by using Natural Gas as feed stock. Andhra Pradesh, with huge natural gas deposits, would be a major beneficiary in this respect.

Speaking about the objectives of the conference, B. M Choudary, Convenor of the conference, said the focus would be on reviewing the growing challenges in catalysis with reference to achieving a high level of eco-compatibility to chemical processes like aromatic oxidation, fluorinations, carbonization's, FT synthesis, NG reforming, polymerisation, asymmetric synthesis, carbon dioxide based and allied processes.

In the drugs and pharmaceuticals, synthesis of new class of bioactive chemical entities is envisaged using of 105 elements of periodic table. This will become a reality only with the cross-fertilization of organic and inorganic chemists. Certainly, catalysts will provide generic and new drugs with affordable prices by introducing cutting edge processes. Synthetic enzymes as enzyme inhibitors will offer a new mode of treatment at affordable prices. Using biosensors, online auto-detection, prescription and administration of drugs which will soon become a reality, brings new dimensions in the therapeutic scene.

Dr. Bossmann, Director, DAAD, New Delhi, the nodal agency for implementing the Indo-German Scientific Programme, said Indo-German cooperation in chemical science was more than three decades old. Catalysis had always been a subject of intense research for both the countries. She talked about the exchange programme in research and the Fellowships offered by the German government to Indian scientists. Dr. Bossman said there was a good chemistry between the two countries.

A V Ramaswamy, president, Catalysis Society of India, said the Society was 30 years old and had conducted 15 national symposia and workshops in different centres of the country so far. The current 16th national symposium being held in Hyderabad was witness to the fact of growing importance and recognition of the vibrant activities of the Society, he said.

Besides well-known scientists from India and Germany, experts and delegates from USA, Japan, Netherlands, France and Hungary are participating in the three-day seminar.

Dr Bernhard LUCKE, Dr Erhard Kemnitz, Dr Ralf Jackstell are among the prominent German scientists who will present papers at the technical sessions.