Haber-Bosch process
Proceso Haber-Bosch (síntesis de amoniaco)
- Date
- 1909–1913 · confidence high
- Place
- Oppau, Ludwigshafen, Germany
- Credited to
- Fritz Haber (Karlsruhe, 1909); Carl Bosch and Alwin Mittasch (BASF, Oppau plant, 1913)
- People
- 👤 Carl Bosch1874–1940👤 Fritz Haber1868–1934
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Synthesis of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen at high pressure with an iron catalyst. It broke dependence on Chilean nitrate and today feeds half of humanity.
What it led to
- Synthetic fertiliser and the 20th-century population explosion
- German explosives during the First World War
- High-pressure chemical engineering (methanol, synthetic petrol)
Built on
- Isolation of ammonia gas1756
- Hydrogen1766
- Nitrogen1772
- Water-gas shift reaction1780
- Concept of catalysis1835
- Superphosphate fertilizer1840-1842
- Le Chatelier's principle1884
- Catalytic ammonia synthesis (Haber)1909
- Chemical thermodynamics (Nernst, Le Chatelier)
- Chromium-nickel steel for reactors
Made possible
- Ostwald process1902
- Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer1913–1920s
- Chemical weapons1915
- Ammonium nitrate explosives
- Coal hydrogenation (Bergius)