Question: How do catalysts effect the environmental cost and impact of products?

Alice Ind answered on 16 Jun 2023:

If you consider the full life cycle of a product you have to look at everything involved in making it from the raw materials, processing, use and end of life e.g. waste disposal or recycling. If the product is made using a catalyst then the resources used and emissions would include those from the lifecycle of the catalyst as with any other “ingredient” in the production.

With catalysts their job is to make things react faster or more efficiently so the better the catalyst the less you need to get the job done. This can also mean the whole process can be made more energy efficient and sustainable. Usually the catalyst is used in a tiny amount per unit of product so in this sense they tend not to be such a great impact in the final value of say global warming potential (CO2 equivalents). But there are catalysts that use scarce resources which may only come form certain parts of the world, such as certain percious metals so we have to be careful to consider more than just carbon footprint and look at environmental and societal impacts.