There is the potential to apply catalysis by gold in numerous commercial applications. These practical uses include catalysts for pollution and emission control, chemical processing of a range of bulk and speciality chemicals, the emerging 'hydrogen economy' for clean hydrogen production and fuel cell systems, as well as for sensors to detect poisonous or flammable gases or substances in solution. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the major commercial opportunities to apply heterogeneous gold catalysis and to highlight those areas that are considered to merit particular attention. It is considered that all involved in this exciting field need to carefully consider both the durability of catalysts under representative operating conditions and viable methods of catalyst preparation, in order to commercially apply the new science that has developed in recent years. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.