Clariant expands U.S. catalyst plant

On June 29, Clariant's catalyst business development is accelerating, and its high-throughput R&D center in Palo Alto, California, was successfully upgraded and expanded. Thanks to the large investment, the upgraded facility is equipped with the latest high-throughput instruments and equipment, and the technical expert team will be further expanded. The doubling of the research and development capabilities of Clariant Palo Alto’s facility has greatly enhanced the company’s ability to provide customers with faster and higher-quality solutions, as well as support partners for custom catalyst scale-up projects.

High-throughput R&D technology combines top-notch hardware, automated equipment, automated programs, and professional software, including machine learning and other artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which can speed up experiments by up to 100 times compared to traditional methods. Clariant, with this innovative method, and its expertise and knowledge in catalyst R&D and production, can advance the catalyst exploration and development cycle by 3 to 4 years, thereby accelerating marketization.

Stefan Heuser, Clariant’s senior vice president and general manager of the catalyst business unit, said: “The expansion of Palo Alto’s high-throughput catalyst R&D center is an important milestone in our business strategy. With its superior geographic location, this R&D The center can utilize the high-tech resources of Silicon Valley. We plan to complete the catalyst technology upgrade here to serve customers, and we are very excited about this."

Since its establishment in 2009, the Clariant Palo Alto Center has focused on the development of catalysts using high-throughput technologies. Many scientists and engineers of the center have completed many groundbreaking work. Currently, the center has prepared and tested tens of thousands of catalysts. Some very successful commercial products have also been born, such as the selective hydrogenation catalyst OleMax® 260.

Anthony Volpe, director of the Palo Alto R&D Center, explained the significance of this expansion. He said: "This upgrade and expansion will help us improve productivity and innovation, and develop catalysts for customers as soon as possible. We are also accelerating cutting-edge Qualcomm The further improvement of quantitative technology, especially to support the scale-up and production of catalysts."