Recognizing the best catalyst for a reaction

Heterogeneous catalysis is immensely important, providing access to materials essential for the well-being of society, and improved catalysts are continuously required. New catalysts are frequently tested under different conditions making it difficult to determine the best catalyst. Here we describe a general approach to identify the best catalyst using a data set based on all reactions under kinetic control to calculate a set of key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are normalized to take into account the variation in reaction conditions. Plots of the normalized KPIs are then used to demonstrate the best catalyst using two case studies: (i) acetylene hydrochlorination, a reaction of current interest for vinyl chloride manufacture, and (ii) the selective oxidation of methane to methanol using O 2 in water, a reaction that has attracted very recent attention in the academic literature. The optimized reaction conditions for a catalytic reaction vary with catalyst, making comparison challenging. Here, a general approach to identify the best catalyst is described, which relies on the comparison of normalized key performance indicators. Two case studies — for acetylene hydrochlorination and methane oxidation — exemplify the method.