BASF environmentally benign, fine chemical catalysts cut costs and waste

BASF Catalysts" new Blocking Group Removal (BGR) catalysts have been entered for the prestigious 2008 CPhI Innovation Awards.

Fine chemicals manufacturers face increasing pressure to reduce the environmental impact of their processes, while also lowering manufacturing costs. BASF's BGR catalysts represent a recent innovation in the field of highly active and selective heterogeneous palladium catalysts that help resolve these issues.

Developed through combining innovative carbon supports with enhanced metal deposition technologies, the catalysts are typically used for removing common blocking groups, such as benzyl used in organic synthesis, among other protecting groups. The BGR catalysts have also proven effective in removing blocking groups in chiral synthesis - without disturbing the chiral centre - an important requirement for the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries.

"When compared with conventional catalysts, BASF's BGR catalysts have demonstrated up to 180% higher activity," said Dr Hans Donkervoort, global product technology manager, specialty and fine chemicals catalysts, BASF. "This leads to surprising technical benefits for users."

For example, classic deprotection catalysts allow the use of only a limited number of solvents, usually alcohols. This results in prolonged reaction times and limits the scope of substrates that are essential for obtaining acceptable deprotection conversions.

The much higher activity of BASF's BGR catalysts allows manufacturers to broaden the number of solvents from which they can choose to achieve improved hydrogenation activity. New choices may include ethyl acetate, n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) or tetrahydrofuran (THF).

Using BGR catalysts in place of classic catalysts also significantly shortens process time, enabling manufacturers to achieve higher throughput in their plants or to free up their reactors sooner for other production runs.

"This activity increase, coupled with shorter time requirements, can result in direct cost savings for our customers," said Donkervoort. "In addition, certain versions of BCG catalysts use less palladium than classic catalysts. This provides obvious monetary benefits, when current palladium prices have risen dramatically."

Widely acknowledged as the leading accolade for r&d in the global pharma manufacturing community, the CPhI Innovation Awards are in their fifth year. As in previous years, the judges will be looking to "recognise and reward groundbreaking developments" in process, product or business model innovations that have practical applications to bring benefits in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The entry deadline is Friday August 15 and The six finalists chosen to contest this year's Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards will be advised on 1 September. The 2008 Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will be announced at the Exhibitor Party on the first day of CPhI Worldwide in Frankfurt - Tuesday 30 September.