The Development and Application of Industrially Viable Catalysts for the Selective Hydrogenation of Complex Molecules

The catalysis group of Solvias has its roots in the Central Research Laboratories of Ciba-Geigy. Since the early eighties its research was focused on three areas of catalytic technology: heterogeneous hydrogenation, coupling catalysis and enantioselective homogeneous hydrogenation. Today, these are still the catalytic methods with the greatest potential for the fine chemicals industry. In this overview we will briefly describe how two of these methods, namely heterogeneous hydrogenation and enantioselective homogeneous hydrogenation have been developed further and applied in technical processes since the spin-off of Solvias in 1999. Additionally, a discussion of which strategies were successful and what the most important results have been in the first decade of Solvias' existence will follow.