Haber-Bosch process

CHEMISTRY
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LAST UPDATED: Feb 11, 2020 See Article History
Alternative Titles: Haber ammonia process, synthetic ammonia process
Haber-Bosch process, also called Haber ammonia process, or synthetic
ammonia process, method of directly
synthesizing ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen, developed by the German
physical chemist Fritz Haber. He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in
1918 for this method, which made the manufacture of ammonia
economically feasible. The method was translated into a large-scale process
using a catalyst and high-pressure methods by Carl Bosch, an industrial
chemist who won a Nobel Prize in 1931 jointly with Friedrich Bergius for high-
pressure studies.
Haber-Bosch was the first industrial chemical process to use high pressure for
a chemical reaction. It directly combines nitrogen from the air with hydrogen
under extremely high pressures and moderately high temperatures. A catalyst
made mostly from iron enables the reaction to be carried out at a lower
temperature than would otherwise be practicable, while the removal of
ammonia from the batch as soon as it is formed ensures that
an equilibrium favouring product formation is maintained. The lower the
temperature and the higher the pressure used, the greater the proportion of
ammonia yielded in the mixture. For commercial production, the reaction is
carried out at pressures ranging from 200 to 400 atmospheres and at
temperatures ranging from 400° to 650° C (750° to 1200° F). The Haber-
Bosch process is the most economical for the fixation of nitrogen and with
modifications continues in use as one of the basic processes of the chemical
industry in the world. See also nitrogen fixation.

By
Amanda Briney
Updated April 10, 2019
The Haber-Bosch process is a process that fixes nitrogen with hydrogen to
produce ammonia — a critical part in the manufacture of plant fertilizers. The
process was developed in the early 1900s by Fritz Haber and was later modified
to become an industrial process to make fertilizers by Carl Bosch. The Haber-
Bosch process is considered by many scientists and scholars as one of the most
important technological advances of the 20th century.

The Haber-Bosch process is extremely important because it was the first of

processes developed that allowed people to mass-produce plant fertilizers due to
the production of ammonia. It was also one of the first industrial processes
developed to use high pressure to create a chemical reaction (Rae-Dupree, 2011).
This made it possible for farmers to grow more food, which in turn made it
possible for agriculture to support a larger population. Many consider the Haber-
Bosch process to be responsible for the Earth's current population explosion as
"approximately half of the protein in today's humans originated with nitrogen
fixed through the Haber-Bosch process" (Rae-Dupree, 2011).

History and Development of the Haber-Bosch Process

By the period of industrialization the human population had grown considerably,
and as a result, there was a need to increase grain production and agriculture
started in new areas like Russia, the Americas and Australia (Morrison, 2001). In
order to make crops more productive in these and other areas, farmers began to
look for ways to add nitrogen to the soil, and the use of manure and later guano
and fossil nitrate grew.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, scientists, mainly chemists, began looking for
ways to develop fertilizers by artificially fixing nitrogen the way legumes do in
their roots. On July 2, 1909, Fritz Haber produced a continuous flow of liquid
ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gases that were fed into a hot, pressurized
iron tube over an osmium metal catalyst (Morrison, 2001). It was the first time
anyone was able to develop ammonia in this manner.

Later, Carl Bosch, a metallurgist and engineer, worked to perfect this process of
ammonia synthesis so that it could be used on a world-wide scale. In 1912,
construction of a plant with a commercial production capacity began at Oppau,
Germany. The plant was capable of producing a ton of liquid ammonia in five
hours and by 1914 the plant was producing 20 tons of usable nitrogen per day
(Morrison, 2001).

With the start of World War I, production of nitrogen for fertilizers at the plant
stopped and manufacturing switched to that of explosives for trench warfare. A
second plant later opened in Saxony, Germany to support the war effort. At the
end of the war both plants went back to producing fertilizers.

How the Haber-Bosch Process Works

The process works today much like it originally did by using extremely high
pressure to force a chemical reaction. It works by fixing nitrogen from the air
with hydrogen from natural gas to produce ammonia (diagram). The process
must use high pressure because nitrogen molecules are held together with strong
triple bonds. The Haber-Bosch process uses a catalyst or container made of iron
or ruthenium with an inside temperature of over 800 F (426 C) and a pressure of
around 200 atmospheres to force nitrogen and hydrogen together (Rae-Dupree,
2011). The elements then move out of the catalyst and into industrial reactors
where the elements are eventually converted into fluid ammonia (Rae-Dupree,
2011). The fluid ammonia is then used to create fertilizers.

Today, chemical fertilizers contribute to about half of the nitrogen put into global
agriculture, and this number is higher in developed countries.

Population Growth and the Haber-Bosch Process

Today, the places with the most demand for these fertilizers are also the places
where the world's population is growing the fastest. Some studies show that
about "80 percent of the global increase in consumption of nitrogen fertilizers
between 2000 and 2009 came from India and China" (Mingle, 2013).

Despite the growth in the world's biggest countries, the large population growth
globally since the development of the Haber-Bosch process shows how important
it has been to changes in global population.

Other Impacts and the Future of the Haber-Bosch Process

The current process of nitrogen fixation is also not completely efficient, and a
large amount is lost after it is applied to fields due to runoff when it rains and a
natural gassing off as it sits in fields. Its creation is also extremely energy-
intensive due to the high temperature pressure needed to break nitrogen's
molecular bonds. Scientists are currently working to develop more efficient ways
to complete the process and to create more environmentally-friendly ways
support the world's agriculture and growing population.
The process[change | change source]
The gases for the Haber process must be prepared before changing them into ammonia. After that is
done, ammonia is created by using magnetite (iron oxide) as the catalyst:
N2 + 3H2 2NH3
In this process, only about 15% of the nitrogen and hydrogen is changed into ammonia.
However, the unused nitrogen and hydrogen is recycled. Overall, 98% of nitrogen and hydrogen
can be changed into ammonia.

Disadvantages of Synthetic fertilisers

You would think that synthetic fertilizers such as ammonia fertilizers obtained from the Haber-
Bosch process is all good news, however there is a downside for using them.
- This is a high energy process and takes up about 1-2% of the world’s energy supply every year
- Fertilisers seep into rivers which causes algae boom. In turn bacteria feed on the dead algae
using up oxygen in the water killing aquatic animals.
-This may enter our water supply which then cause health issues.
However, the pros of the Haber-bosch process clearly outweighs the cons of this process as it
helps feeds the world by helping to increase the yield of crops