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The Synthetic Nitrogen Industry in World War I

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science ((BRIESFHISTCHEM))

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Abstract

Following the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, Fritz Haber sent his family to Switzerland. Fearing that he would be charged as a war criminal, in particular for his involvement with gas warfare, Haber destroyed sensitive documents, grew a beard, and in disguise travelled to Switzerland to join his family. Though there were claims of charges made against Haber, they were not substantiated. Meantime the Swedish Royal Academy, in its deliberations related to the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, had from 1912 returned to an interest in nitrogen fixation, considering Haber, whose name was brought up in 1912, 1913, 1915, and 1916, including jointly with Carl Bosch in 1915 and 1916, as a strong candidate.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Miolati was probably referring to an event related to the September 1924 centennial of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. See Fritz Haber, Practical Results of the Theoretical Development of Chemistry; an address by Professor F. Haber, on the occasion of the centenary celebration of the founding of the Franklin Institute and the inauguration exercises of the Bartol Research Foundation, September 17, 18, 19, 1924. Philadelphia: Franklin Institute, 1924.

  2. 2.

    The Minimata facility was later to gain considerable notoriety arising from poisoning of villagers due to releases of mercury sludge. Nippon Chisso Hiryō Kabushki Kaisha (Nichitsu), became Chisso in 1965, and Japan New Chisso in 2012.

  3. 3.

    At the close of the 20th century, four products represented the mainstay of the ammonia-based fertilizer industry: granular ammonium nitrate; liquid anhydrous ammonia; ammonium nitrate; and urea. More recently, urea has come into favour, due to its higher concentration of nitrogen. This enables more careful application, with less damage to the environment. Composite fertilizers containing nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, the concentrated three-component NPK products, were introduced in the mid-1920s by I.G. Farben as Nitrophoska.

    Ammonium nitrate, made from hot ammonia and nitric acid, after removal of water, is sprayed in a tower, where small lumps are formed, called prills. According to density, prills are used as fertilizer or in manufacture of explosives. Ammonium nitrate is highly explosive under certain conditions. In September 1921, a mixture of ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulphate at Oppau exploded, with loss of over 600 lives, in addition to 2,000 injuries. This followed detonation of a hardened mixture while it was being broken up with small explosive charges. Carl Krauch , the upcoming BASF high-pressure chemist, was responsible for reconstruction, which took just twelve weeks, and brought about his elevation to the managing board of BASF. In September 2001, there was another major accidental explosion of ammonium nitrate, this time at the Toulouse ammonia factory in France. In April 2013 there was a further explosion, in Texas.

  4. 4.

    After 1918, Bamag (Bamag-Meguin from 1924) became a major supplier of nitric acid plants throughout Europe and Japan. The introduction of stainless steels overcame many of the corrosion problems. The most important feature of the ammonia oxidation plant, as introduced in Germany, was the special chrome-steel converter in which layers of catalyst were laid out horizontally. The catalyst, made up of a fine wire of platinum-rhodium alloy, was woven into a large circular gauze. The rhodium, representing 10 % of the catalyst wire, gave strength and minimized loss of platinum. Ammonia oxidation plants developed during World War I were to become the basis of all such installations in use until the 1950s and beyond (some oxidation plants that operated under conditions of high pressure were developed in the 1920s, though these were introduced generally after World War II). In 1926, ICI at Billingham constructed its first nitric acid plant for oxidation of synthetic ammonia. In 1939, the British Ministry of Supply took delivery of ten-foot diameter gauzes, which became the norm for industrial use. In the converter the ammonia is vaporized over warm water and mixed with air. The gas mixture is then sucked through the converter or pushed through at low pressure and the gauze electrically heated to start the reaction. The reaction mixture is rapidly removed, cooled and taken up into dilute nitric acid, or water. The uptake is slow and makes the operation expensive. Production of nitric acid by the platinum oxidation process continues to be maintained at high levels in civilian economies for reaction with ammonia to form ammonium nitrate (“nitram,” etc.) fertilizer.

  5. 5.

    Though production of calcium cyanamide increased during the 1920s, reaching a peak in 1928, its overall share of the fertilizer market declined. In the mid-1930s its agricultural applications were extended to use as an effective defoliant, based on herbicidal properties, and, before planting of crops, as seed-bed sterilizer. Studies on dicyanamide had been undertaken by Caro and colleagues shortly after 1900. It became important in the manufacture of melamine resins. Cyanamide found uses in the synthesis of sulpha drugs, and as an intermediate, including for acrylonitrile.

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  1. Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Safra Campus, Jerusalem, Israel

    Anthony S. Travis

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Travis, A.S. (2015). Nobel Prizes and New Technologies. In: The Synthetic Nitrogen Industry in World War I. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19357-1_5

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