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Non-BASF Ammonia Technologies

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Nitrogen Capture

Abstract

On 24 January 1927, Nikodem Caro, co-inventor with Adolph Frank of the calcium cyanamide process for the capture of atmospheric nitrogen, lectured in Berlin on the nitrogen industry. He was particularly scathing of those countries that, he claimed, after World War I used “chemists and engineers in uniform” and “stolen” Haber-Bosch synthetic ammonia patents to develop nitrogen capture industries outside Germany. He could give credit only to Georges Claude in France and Luigi Casale in Italy for original innovations in ammonia synthesis. The great proliferation of nitrogen factories, he remarked, “makes one think and raises questions” about those countries that had without doubt stolen the ammonia industry to satisfy their strategic ambitions: “And now one understands that in most cases these new factories do not spring from economic but from political necessity, the strategic need for independence in nitrogen requirements in agriculture and for production of munitions” [1]. This resonated with Humphrey’s scenario in July 1923, in which he foresaw the spread of nitrogen factories outside Germany’s borders unless BASF maintained its monopoly on synthetic ammonia. But in 1927, with new processes available, the situation was very different. Nevertheless the strategy of controlling synthetic nitrogen technologies approached the kind of oversight reserved for industries serving the military.

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Change history

  • 13 March 2019

    The original version of the book was inadvertently published with incorrect information. These changes have now been corrected and approved by the author.

Notes

  1. 1.

    Casale, British patent, GB 148,885-A, filed 30 June 1921.

  2. 2.

    Casale, British patent, GB 194,740-A, filed 19 September 1921.

  3. 3.

    Casale, Canadian patent, CA 230,616, filed 1 May 1923. See also Casale British patent, GB 193,789, 24 August 1922; addition to GB 185,179.

  4. 4.

    Around 1930, Fauser invented a process for the oxidation of ammonia into liquid nitrogen tetroxide, which was then converted into concentrated nitric acid, suited to the manufacture of explosives. This was developed by Bamag-Meguin and used in many countries.

Abbreviations

ASED:

SA Ammoniaque Synthétique et Dérivés. (Montecatini-Fauser)

Azogeno:

Società per la Fabbricazione dell’Ammoniaca Sintetica e Prodotti Derivati. (Claude)

Carburo:

Società Italiana del Carburo di Calcio, Acetilene e altri Gas (Roma). In 1922, taken over by SAFFAT, at which time the Terni company was established.

DSM:

Dutch State Mines (Nederlandse Staatsmijnen).

Montecatini:

Montecatini Mining and Agriculture Company (Società Generale per l’Industria Mineraria e Agricola Montecatini). (Fauser)

Pechiney:

Cie d’Alais, Froges et Camargue.

SAFFAT:

Società degli Alti Forni Fonderie e Acciaiere di Terni. Also: Società Alti Forni Fonderie & Acciaiere; Società degli Alti Forni e Fonderie di Terni.

SIAS:

Società Italiana Ammoniaca Sintetica-Processo Casale.

SIPA:

Società Italiana per la Fabbricazione di Prodotti Azotati e di altri sostanze per l’Agricoltura. Also: Società Italiana Prodotti Azotati. (Montecatini)

SIRI:

Società Italiana Ricerche Industriali. (Casale)

Terni:

Terni-Società per Indùstria e l’Elettricità. Also: Società per l’Industrie e l’Elettricità ‘Terni’. (Casale)

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Anthony S. Travis

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Travis, A.S. (2018). Non-BASF Ammonia Technologies. In: Nitrogen Capture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68963-0_10

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