2. Acid catalysis and its applications

The main hydrocarbon transformations are catalyzed by acids. In the corresponding industrial processes (oil refining and petrochemicals), heterogeneous catalysis has largely supplanted homogeneous catalysis. This is because solid acid catalysts have undeniable advantages over protonic acid solutions (HF, H ₂ SO ₄ , etc.) or Lewis solutions (AlCl ₃ , BF ₃ , etc.): they are often non-corrosive, regenerable, easily separable from the reaction medium, and easy to implement continuously. These advantages, which are essential from an environmental point of view, remain insufficient, however, for solid catalysts to replace acid solutions in the synthesis of functional molecules (fine chemistry). There are several reasons...