Precious metals
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Umicore
scales up new catalysts using glass-lined
reactors. |
Committed to customer satisfaction, Umicore develops
and manufactures first-class metalbased catalysts
and APIs and lets its partners concentrate on
marketing their end products.
Like many strategic purchasers and process R&D
scientists,
Umicore’s specialists have faced two particular
problems
when upscaling a chemical process using catalysts
from
R&D to commercial production. How to ensure
the steady supply
at tens or hundreds of kilograms of a standard
palladiumphosphine
catalyst and how to ensure the steady supply at
the
same large scale of a custom-made homogeneous
catalyst?
Flexible manufacturing
Umicore has over 40 years’ experience in
precious metals
chemistry. Its sales and marketing are specialised
in handling
products or technology. These teams enable the
company to
adjust its R&D support and production scale-up
to suit customer
needs, from grams or kilograms to tons, in the
same short lead
times. They also allow Umicore to market new catalysts
quickly,
after evaluating catalyst activity, securing the
IP and optimising
and scaling up the manufacture of catalysts in
the company’s
multi-purpose plants. There, products are scaled
up using glasslined
reactors operating in an inert atmosphere.
The whole process allows the company to provide
the most
innovative catalysts, the most consistent quality
and the safest
supply. Umicore prides itself on its ‘close
loop concept’ of
customer service, combining the above advantages
with detailed
technical sales support. This enables the most
efficient metal
recovery at the most competitive prices worldwide.
Examples of new products scaled up in 2010 include
di(tri-tbutylphosphine)
palladium(0) – CAS No 53199-31-8, a crosscoupling
catalyst also known as the ‘FU’ catalyst,
which we now
produce on regular basis at more than 10 kg scale.
Our optimised
manufacturing process allows us to guarantee up
to four months’
product and performance stability.
The second of our new products is chloro(p-cymene)(BINAP)
ruthenium chloride, also available today at tens
of kilograms at a
level of quality matching the most sensitive enantioselective
catalytic processes. Both enantiomers can be supplied
at the
same scale.
Last but not least, the (hexamethylbenzene) ruthenium(II)
chloride dimmer is due to be released at multi-kilogram
scale
later this year. It has been developed at a high
and consistent
level of purity, and is a reliable precursor for
the in situ formation
of enantioselective catalysts.
Whether you are looking for the most competitive
source of
Wilkinson’s catalyst, for the best Pd catalyst
to develop an
amination reaction, or you want to optimise your
asymmetric
hydrogenation step with a pre-formed metal-ligand
complex, or
to scale up the ring closure metathesis of a challenging
substrate,
the Umicore team will support you to best fulfil
your needs.
The market leader in Latin America with 60% platinum
API market share, the company also supplies Cisplatin,
Carboplatin and Oxaliplatin to oncology players
on a global
scale and is able to cover half of the worldwide
demand for
Platinum API products.
Taking advantage of its metal chemistry expertise
and the full
compliance of its plant with GMP, USP, EP and
JP guidelines as
well as with ISO 9001 and 14001 standards, Umicore’s
R&D team
has started to produce other metal-based APIs
in partnership
with other companies. In such joint ventures,
Umicore develops
and manufactures the API while its partners concentrate
on
developing and marketing the drug.
If you are looking for an API partner, the company
is happy
to start the joint development of your new products.
The development and manufacture of metal-based
catalysts
and APIs contributes to Umicore´s mission
to provide materials
for a better life.
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