130 Surface Reactivity
and Catalysis
The Surface Reactivity and Catalysis (SRC) Group of the UK Royal Society (RSC) holds regular meetings. This year, a series of regional meetings has been launched, the first of which is to take place at ICI Agricultural Division in Billingham on 19th May and which is entitled "Poisons and Promoters in Catalysis". The Autumn Meeting of the Group will be held at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, on 22nd and when the theme will 23rd September, be "Reaction Mechanisms and Catalyst Structure". The aim of the meeting is to examine the relationship between heterogeneous reaction mechanisms and the structure of the catalysts. It is inter alia, to include papers hoped, which deal with studies of reaction products with radio-active and stable isotopes and adsorbate-adsorbent interactions examined by XPS, SIMS, IR, ESR, etc. Speakers will include Prof. Keith Hall (University of Wisconsin), Dr. J.A. Rabo (Union Carbide) and Prof. Peter Wells (University of Hull). Details of these meetings are given in the Calender. Another activitv of the SRC Group which has recently been launched is an effort to bring together people who use microprocessors to control instruments and/or to process results in their research in catalysis. The link-man in this project is Dr. Richard Moyes, Department of Chemistry, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
Forthcoming
Meetings
in North America
The Catalysis Society of North America is made up of a number of smaller local or specialist clubs and societies. As well as the Eighth North American Meeting to be held in Philadelphia from lst-4th May and organised by the Philadelphia Catalysis Club, a number of other meetinqs are planned during May. The Pitisburgh'group will hold its Spring Symposium in Monroeville,. Pennsylvania, from 25th-27th May; the TriState Society will hold a symposium on Synthetic Fuels on 18th May in Lexington, Kentucky; and the Chicago Society will hold the Chicago Catalysis Symposium on 9th May at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Another meeting of interest is the Sixth International Conference on ‘_‘rllllpb
- Volume 6 No. 1 -April
1983
Sintering and Related Phenanena, includine Heteroaeneous Catalysts, which will be held fr& 6th-8th June at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. 'Finally, the Orqanics Reactions Catalysis Society plan to hold its Tenth Conference from 7th-9th Mav 1984 in Richmond, Viroinia. Details of"these activities are given in the Calendar of Forthcoming Events. Further details on membership of the Catalysis Society can be obtained from the secretary, Dr. R.D. Gonzales, Universitv of Rhode Island, Kinoston, RI 02881,-USA, or the local affiliated Liaison Representatives: California, Dr. R.A. Van Nostrand; Canada, Dr. I.G. Dalla Lana; Chicago, Dr. J.B. Peri; New England, Dr. M. Manning; New York, E.W. Stern; Michiqan, Dr. M. Shelef; Organic Reactions, Dr. G.V. Smith; Philadelphia, Dr. R.P. Eischens; Pittsburoh, Dr. T.P. Kobylinski; Southwest, Dr. 2.H. Lunsford; Tri-State, Dr. W.P. Hettiner. The Society publishes a newsletter from which the above information has been gleaned; thanks are due to the Editor, Dr. T.A. Koch, of E.I. duPont de Nemours and Co., Inc.; Petrochemicals Dept., Experimental Station Lab., Wilmington, Delaware 19898, for having made it available. Editorial matter and contributions to the Newsletter should be directed to Dr. Koch.
The Catalysis
Society
of Japan
The Catalysis Society of Japan (CSJ) dates back to 1958 when its forebear, the Catalysis Club of Japan, was founded; its present title was adopted in 1960. The Society, which has 1650 individual members and 90 corporate members,worksclosely with the Chemical Society of Japan and plays a key role in the development of the science in Japan. It provides regular forums, three times a year, for academic presentations and discussions; in addition, it holds various meetings, research discussions and lecture meetings, these totalling about twenty annually. The range of interests of the CSJ is basically the same as that covered by the International Congresses on Catalysis. It includes heterogeneous catalysis as the main area of research and homogeneous catalysis and enzymes as secondary areas. Through its various national meetings, the Society provides for the academic researchers from universities and nationalresearch insti-
131
tutes, as for research engineers from private companies, opportunities to actively exchange views and information on both basic and applied research. For example, prior to the Springtime Meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan, a discussion meeting is held by the Society at which lectures are given by guest speakers on selected subjects and other lectures are given covering technical material, patents and other general matters, all in a highly sophisticated,academic atmosphere. The subjects of the annual discussion meetings for 1981 and 1982 were "Cl Chemistrv" and "The Preparation of Catalyst;", respectively; that for this year is "Solid Acid and Base Catalysis"; and that for 1984 is "Synergistic Effects". The Society also organises international events. For example, the 7th InternationalCongress on'catalysis was held succesfully in Japan in 1980, with an attendance in excess of 1000 (see Appl. Catal., 1 (1981) 106). Members of the Society worked as members of various organising committees and groups. (The proceedings of this Congress were published jointly by Kodansha and Elsevier in 1981.) International Seminars held by the CSJ have included ones run jointly with the USA. the USSR and France, each on a bilateral basis, and with the USA and China on a trilateral basis (see Appl. Catal. 5 (1983) 374). The science of Catalysis is currently under pressure to contribute to a diversification of raw-materials, the development of new resource/energy-saving catalytic technology. environmental preservation and the development of new catalytic technologies for various applications, including those for articles in every-day use. The Catalytic Society of Japan is expected to play an important role in the field of applied catalysis, building upon a well-developed basic science, for example, the rapidly progressing field of surface chemistry. T. Takagi, Secretary, C.S.J. Grace FCC Facilities at Worms, W-Germany During the third quarter of 1982, Grace GmbH in Worms, West Germany,began to produce the Davison DA family of cracking catalysts. This new family of catalysts represents the latestcatalyst mm
-Volume 6 No. 1 - April 1983
technology available fran Davison, Baltimore, MD, USA. According to Grace, they demonstrate an outstanding commercial performance. Some twelve cat units in the United States and Canada plus ten cat units here in Europe are already (February 1983) using these catalysts to process a.wide range of aas oils ~1~s feeds containinq residuum. Catalysts in the DA series are said to cover a wide spectrum of properties, thereby enabling precise optimisation of feedstock and unit type combinations; typical is the broad span of microactivities ranging from 56 to 81. Outstanding features claimed for the catalysts are the attrition resistance,resultingin improved unit retention,obtainedwithout enhanced erosion characteristicsand the high tolerance to metals contamination. The novel formulations of the DA orbducts reauire Droduction facilities based'on techniques developed specifically for these catalysts. The new plant at Worms is the result of these developments plus the experience gained over several-years of operation at plants. dedicated specifically to the'productionof the DA catalyst, in the USA. In addition to the production of DA fluid cracking catalysts, the Worms complex has facilities to produce molecular sieves, silica gel, chromatographic gels, polyolefin catalyst and other industrial catalvsts as well as micronized silicas for 'Bwide range of industries. Research and Development, for these products, as well as Technical Services and Marketing, are also centered in Worms. Chemrawn III
It has recently been announced that the Chemrawn III (Chemical Research Applied to World Needs) World Conference on "Resource Material Conversion to meet Future Needs, (Bio-) Chemical Process Bridges" will be held from 25-29 June 1984 at the Congress Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands. The conference is sponsored by the InternationalUnion of Pure and Applied Chemistrv and the Royal Netherlands Chemical-Society.Ch-emrawn III is the third in a series of international meetings designed by IUPAC to identify and study world needs for which chemical science and technology can contribute to a solution. The central theme of the conference is the flexibility in