The future of industrial oxidation catalysis spurred by fundamental advances

This short review is a response to the invitation of the Organizers to present the state of Industrial Oxidation Catalysis. This is an attempt to sketch a bird's eye picture about fundamental aspects as well as applied perspectives, of catalysts, catalytic mechanisms, reactors and industrial processes. First, a glimpse at the present situation is given, covering both industrial developments and fundamental concepts, with particular emphasis on describing trends. The message is essentially that completely new catalytic materials are appearing, new mechanisms in all their complexity are being elucidated and new kinds of reactors and types of unit operations are being designed, all thanks to an exceptionally close cooperation between specialists in different fields. Catalytic oxidation is breaking new ground in the field of catalysis with the development of new concepts and industrial achievements. In view of the limited size allowed for the paper, only very few references will be cited compared to the richness of literature, and many important aspects will not be mentioned.