In a recent­ly released report from the US Inter­na­tion­al Trade Com­mis­sion, USITC Pub­li­ca­tion 3602 [avail­able on the web at www.usitc.gov/ittr.htm- note you need only print pages 25–44], describes cat­a­lysts as an inno­v­a­tive indus­try respond­ing to tech­no­log­i­cal and com­pet­i­tive chal­lenges. The arti­cle describes the basic char­ac­ter­is­tics of cat­a­lysts, their prin­ci­ple com­mer­cial appli­ca­tions, the struc­ture of the indus­try, major chal­lenges fac­ing the indus­try; and prospec­tive future appli­ca­tions. In the sec­tion on Bar­ri­ers to Com­mer­cial­iza­tion, the author notes, “The mere fact that a new cat­a­lyst shows promis­ing tech­ni­cal prop­er­ties does not guar­an­tee that the new­er cat­alyt­ic tech­nol­o­gy will super­sede the old­er tech­nol­o­gy as rapid­ly as expect­ed, espe­cial­ly if the tra­di­tion­al tech­nol­o­gy is rec­og­nized as being reli­able and well chac­ter­ized.”