The Haber-Bosch Process and the Era of Fertilizers

At the turn of the century, the British chemist Sir William Crookes delivers a lecture to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Bristol titled The Wheat Problem. His audience hears that the wheat harvest depends on saltpeter from Chile. This fixed nitrogen is used as a fertilizer to increase agricultural yields and produce more food for the rapidly growing population. But land reserves in Europe in particular are depleted and Chiles saltpeter reserves are running out fast. Nitrogen is therefore urgently needed as a plant nutrient. Nitrogen is available in Europe huge amounts of it in fact but only in the atmosphere. Neither plants nor humans can make use of this inert substance because a technically feasible method of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in chemical compounds has not yet been discovered. The results of Wilhelm Ostwalds investigations into the effect of catalysts eventually pave the way for an application based on physical chemistry. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch subsequently develop a process to fix atmospheric nitrogen and produce synthetic ammonia. In 1913, BASF starts operating the worlds first ammonia synthesis plant. Mineral fertilizer production begins, launching a new phase in the companys history. Whereas BASF has been exclusively a dyes company until now, it now becomes a supplier of agricultural products. At the same time, it moves into a completely new area of chemistry highpressure technology. The introduction of high-pressure technology means a change in methods. Equipment becomes more complex. Chemists and engineers now need to work together much more closely. The German chemical industry leads the world, and in some areas even holds a global monopoly. Industrial growth seems unstoppable. But the First World War brings these promising developments to an end.

Coal is not merely a source of energy, it is also the chemical industrys most important raw material at this time. To secure its raw material base, BASF, along with Bayer and AGFA, acquires the Auguste Victoria mine in Marl, Germany, in 1907. From the Annual Report 1907: Always mindful of improving the welfare of our staff, we launched a non-contributory workers pension scheme at the beginning of this year which will pay invalidity pensions to workers based on certain guidelines. We also intend to grant workers a fully paid annual vacation of one week, including a holiday bonus payment, after 10 years of service.

1908: The work of Fritz Haber (1868 1934, professor of chemistry at Karlsruhe and Berlin) suggests that the technical synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen may be possible. The process requires high temperatures, high pressure and catalysts. BASF starts conducting intensive research under the direction of Carl Bosch (1874 1940, chemist, chairman of BASFs Board of Executive Directors from 1919 to 1925 and of IG Farben from 1925 to 1935).

Patent document October 13, 1908: Process for Synthesizing Ammonia from the Elements

The inventors of ammonia synthesis: Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber. The apparatus used by Haber in the laboratory looks deceptively simple.

BASF at the turn of the century

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Poster announcing first provision of paid holiday

In 1910, after extensive experiments, Alwin Mittasch (1869 1953, chemist and head of the ammonia lab from 1912 to 1932) finds the long-sought ideal catalyst for synthesizing ammonia: activated iron. The industrial production of ammonia requires extensive pioneer work: New types of steel have to be developed and tested, new reactor designs tried out, and special gas machines and compressors built.

The launch of machine-based data processing at BASF: In 1911, BASF is one of the first customers of Berlin-based Deutsche Hollerith-Gesellschaft AG and is listed as client number six.

The new Oppau plant around 1914: The Ludwigshafen plants can be seen in the distance.

The technical implementation of the Haber-Bosch process faces failure. The new pressure vessels and pipes encased in reinforced concrete burst again and again. It is Carl Bosch himself who comes up with the solution: a double pipe with an inner mantle of soft iron and an external pressure-bearing but perforated steel casing. Nevertheless, further expert advice is needed. In order to solve the growing problems posed by materials and related safety problems, BASF sets up the chemical industrys first materials testing lab in 1912. The main task of materials testing, then and now, is to identify and control problems in materials for instrumentation and process engineering.

A year after the groundbreaking, the first ammonia synthesis plant begins producing nitrogen fertilizers in Oppau in 1913 three kilometers north of the Ludwigshafen site. Annual output: 7,200 metric tons of ammonia to be processed into 36,000 metric tons of ammonium sulfate. Ninety years later, BASF has an annual capacity of 875,000 metric tons of ammonia in Ludwigshafen. BASFs clubhouse, the Vereinshaus, today known as the Feierabendhaus, is inaugurated. It provides function rooms, a library, a restaurant and a bowling alley that workers can use in their leisure time. The first edition of the company newspaper is published to coincide with the opening of the building on April 13, 1913.

Carl Bosch wants fertilizers to be tested as thoroughly as dyes. Customers are to be given proper instructions for their use. This means extensive trials to determine the effect of fertilizers on soil and on plants. 1914 sees the opening of the Agricultural Research Station in Limburgerhof, near Ludwigshafen, to investigate fertilizers and plant physiology. This paves the way for BASFs worldwide activities in the field of agricultural chemistry. The First World War begins in August 1914. Germany pours its resources into the war effort, putting an increasing burden on the economy. For the first time, the war makes the new industrial society aware of the ambivalence of many products, including chemicals. Synthetic ammonia, for example, was developed to secure food supplies for a growing population. Faced with a shortage of ammunition by the end of 1914, the government, however, assigns top priority to ammonia. It is converted into saltpeter at the Oppau plant and then delivered to the explosives industry.

Chlorine and phosgene, important intermediates used to manufacture dyes and drugs among other things, are used as poison gas by the armies of both sides.

Fritz Gnther (1877 1957, chemist at BASF from 1901 to 1938) discovers Nekal, a textile auxiliary, in 1916. It is the first synthetic surfactant. It reduces the surface tension of water and outperforms the washing performance of the soaps of the day. Such synthetic wetting agents are still used today in dishwashing and laundry products and without them a nodry shine would not be possible. Other surfactants are used to manufacture emulsion paints and shampoos.

After several expansions of the Oppau ammonia facilities, the government orders the construction of a second major production plant. A site in eastern Germany, away from the danger of air raids, is chosen. After a brief period of construction, BASFs second ammonia plant in Leuna near Merseburg starts operating in April 1917. In Oppau, construction work starts on the Ammonia Laboratory, BASFs second major research facility.

Simplifying the dyeing process: Nekal reduces the surface tension of water and stops yarn from floating in the dye bath.

BASFs Vereinshaus later becomes the Feierabendhaus, where workers go to relax after work.

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Interior view of the materials testing laboratory

Entrance to the Agricultural Research Station in Limburgerhof and the first greenhouse

Installation of a highpressure reactor in the ammonia plant.

By the end of the First World War in 1918, German dye manufacturers have lost their leading position on the worlds markets. Production facilities, subsidiaries, associated companies, and sales companies abroad are confiscated, as are patents registered abroad. Reparations imposed by the victors hamper economic recovery. BASF is occupied by French troops for several months and links to the eastern bank of the Rhine are severed.

Representatives of BASFs senior management, salaried employees and workers found a joint committee for education in 1919. This lays the foundation for todays broad program of cultural events sponsored by BASF. Symphony and chamber concerts and a wide range of special events as well as extensive sports and leisure facilities are offered not only to BASFs workforce, but also to their families and to the citizens of Ludwigshafen and the surrounding region. The creation of the first German republic in November 1918 also leads to changes in the companys charter. The previously paternalistic approach to relations between the company and its employees is replaced by mandatory codetermination rights. The first collective wage agreement in the chemical industry is signed in July 1919. It guarantees the eight-hour working day long demanded by labor unions. BASFs first works council is elected in 1920; its representatives are admitted to the companys Supervisory Board in 1922.

On September 21, 1921, the new Oppau site is rocked by a huge explosion that claims more than 500 lives and causes considerable damage to the site and neighboring community. The accident occurs during blasts carried out to loosen ammonium nitrate sulfate fertilizer stored in a warehouse. At the memorial service, Carl Bosch says: The disaster was caused neither by carelessness nor human failure. Unknown natural factors that we are still unable to explain today have made a mockery of all our efforts. The very substance intended to provide food and life to millions of our countrymen and which we have produced and supplied for years has suddenly become a cruel enemy for reasons we are as yet unable to fathom. It has reduced our site to rubble. But what is that compared to the victims whose lives this disaster has claimed. We stand here today helpless and powerless, and whatever we can do to comfort their grieving families and the injured is nothing compared to what they have lost.

In October 1923, BASF prints its own money: The aniline dollar

The lost war brings runaway inflation to Germany. One U.S. dollar is worth 4.2 trillion marks. In 1923, BASFs assets amount to 65,733,583,748 million marks. BASF tries to protect its workforce from the effects of the devaluation. At the height of the crisis in 1923, the company introduces a new currency, the aniline dollar. For a short time, it becomes the most sought after banknote in the region. The Haber-Bosch process means BASF becomes the first company to begin working on the many opportunities presented by high-pressure technology. It is this technology that will now shape large-scale chemical operations. In 1923, Matthias Pier (1882 1965, chemist at BASF from 1920 to 1949) successfully synthesizes methanol. Yet another of natures raw material monopolies is broken: Wood alcohol is dethroned by synthetic methanol. A year earlier, BASF had succeeded in producing urea on an industrial scale from ammonia and carbon dioxide 100 years after Friedrich Whler had first synthesized urea in the laboratory.

In his attempt to improve the production of synthesis gas in the manufacture of ammonia, Fritz Winkler (1888 1950, chemist at BASF from 1916 to 1950) discovers the principle of the fluidized bed in 1924. This produces an excellent combustible gas during the process of coking fine-grain lignite. The Winkler principle is also the basis for the process developed by BASF in 1950 whereby pyrite is roasted in fluidized bed furnaces in the production of sulfuric acid.

The Oppau site following the 1921 explosion

Fritz Winkler and his sketch of an outstanding invention: The fluidized bed principle for coking lignite

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Wartime emergency: BASF distributes food supplies to its employees.

The Leuna site near Merseburg around 1920

The first shipment of methanol leaves the Leuna site on September 26, 1923.