The Catalyst Review - February 2015 - 7

SPECIAl FEATuRE
CATCON2014: "From Innovation to
Growth" Conference In ReviewBy Frits Dautzenberg, PhD
Introduction
The Catalyst Group Resources' (TCGR's) CATCON conference series has returned as one of the industry's leading venues for product/
process innovation in the catalytic process industries. On December 8 and 9, 2014 TCGR organized a well-attended CATCON2014
conference in Houston, TX. There were about 100 attendees including 22 speakers.
For CATCON2014 the selected theme was "Innovation to Growth." The theme was specifically designed to stimulate technical
and commercial thinking and to promote discussions regarding the role of new developments in meeting changing energy/fuels,
petrochemical and chemical and other demands such as environment protection.
Several companies were invited to present papers with the objective of capturing true innovation stories of global participants.
For CATCON2014 papers were selected from, among others, Evonik, BASF, Dow, Gas Technology Institute, Johnson Matthey/Davy
Process, CRI/Zeolyst, Siluria, GTC Technology, Clariant, Serenix and Anellotech. All the selected papers clearly demonstrate the
commitment to "innovative" approaches by these companies.
Keynote Address: "leading Innovation to Drive value Creation"
After welcoming words by John Murphy, president of The Catalyst Group Recourses (TCGR), Dr. P. Nagler (CIO of Evonik) delivered an
inspiring keynote address, "Leading Innovation to drive value creation."
Evonik is a global leader in specialty chemicals with sales of €12.7 billion in 2013 and about 33.000 employees. About €1.3 billion
of their current sales come from products younger than 5 years. Evonik's R&D budget is €394 million covering 2600 employees.
Close to 90% of R&D is in market applications directed by the business units. For their strategic innovation, they operate a dedicated
unit called "Creavis." Its focus is on new business
options and additional competences. Evonik's
current competence areas include: inorganic particle
design, coating and bounding technology, interfacial
technology, designing polymers, bio technology and
catalytic processes. Dr. Nagler showed a few new
technologies that they have developed. Using new
tire technology, where they apply silica-silane systems
and they claim up to 8% less fuel consumption. For
car roll resistance they developed new lubricant
viscosity index improvers. For cross-organizational
competence developments, Evonik uses the so-called
"Project Houses." Several past Project Houses were
mentioned in Nagler's presentation. They currently are
working on light and electronics, composites and new
medical devices. With "open" innovation (Figure 1),
Evonik works with industrial partners and has scientific
cooperations with many universities. Dr. Nagler
Figure 1. Key levers for driving Evonik's (open) innovation power.
Source: Evonik at CATCON2014
The Catalyst Review
February 2015
7

The Catalyst Review - February 2015

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