The Claude Process

M. Georges Claude gives an interesting account of his process for the synthesis of ammonia,
depending on the use of pressures approaching 1000 atmospheres. The work of compression of a
gas at constant temperature varies as the logarithm of the pressure, so that if the work of
compression from i to 200 atm. is 2-3, that from i to 1000 atm. will be only 3, or at most 3S, if
the diminution of compressibility at high pressures is taken into account. At high pressures,
however, the percentage of ammonia in equilibrium with hydrogen and nitrogen will be greatly
increased. Claude announced in 1917 that his experiments indicated that the yield could be
increased from about 13 per cent, at 200 atm. to more than 40 per cent, at 1000 atm., the
temperature being the same in both cases. A production of 6 grams of ammonia per gram of
catalyst an hour, as compared with 0-5 grams in the Badische process, is attained. Whereas it is
necessary at 200 atm., employed by the Badische Co., to circulate the gas several times over the
catalyst, and to separate the ammonia after each circulation, it is sufficient to circulate only three
or four times at 1000 atm. The volume of the apparatus required for the same production is only
about one-tenth that required at 200 atm. pressure. The main source of difficulty in working at
high pressures is the evolution of heat, which is 25 to 50 times greater than in working at 200
atm. The difficulty is then, not to conserve the heat of reaction to make the process autothermic,
as is the case in the Badische method, but to eliminate this heat. The Claude apparatus has been
operated with success at La Grande Paroisse with a unit producing 1-25 metric tons of ammonia
per day, and a larger unit, for 5 tons per day, with a compressor dealing with 700 cu. m. of gas
per day, has recently been put into-operation with success.
This process departs from the Haber process more than any of the other ammonia syntheses
process, the residual gas is wasted to the atmosphere or utilized for its heat content. The large
amount of heat evolved in operating at space velocities of 100,000 with as much as 40% of the
hydrogen nitrogen mixture converted to ammonia in one pass, called for a special converter
design.
Among advantages claimed for the Claude process are the following:
1. Greater compactness, simplicity, and case of construction of the converter, since under
the high pressure used the gases have smaller volume.

2. Elimination of the expensive heat exchangers required in processes operated at lower

pressure.
3. Removal of ammonia with water cooling alone, rather than by ammonia refrigerators
or scrubbing processes.

Cited against these advantages are the shorter life of converters, high apparatus upkeep in the
high-pressure operation, and the efficiency loss in wasting approximately 20% of the makeup
gas, which is unconverted. Modifications of the Claude process include recycling of the gas
through the synthesis converters.

Process Flow Diagram for the production of Ammonia by Claude

The Mont Cenis Process

Back in Germany, the Mont-Cenis-Uhde ammonia synthesis process was developed and piloted
in 1925, following which a commercial ammonia plant the first with a production capacity of
100 tonnes per day (t/d) was built at the Mont-Cenis coal mine and commissioned in 1928. The
reactor was design by Friedrich Uhde, but the process was based on patents from Mont-Cenis
themselves. The high-pressure reactor was manufactured by Uhde. The catalyst was based on a
patent from Cederberg.
The first Uhde ammonia plants were designed and operated with the Cederberg catalyst at a loop
pressure no higher than 100 atm g to avoid infringing patents held by IG Farben (BASF). This
process was originally developed to use hydrogen separated from coke oven gas by a
liquefaction process, and nitrogen was obtained by the liquefaction of the air Once those patents
expired in 1926/1927, the design pressure for the newer plants was raised to 150 atm and, later,
to 300 atm. Uhde was the exclusive contractor for the Mont Cenis process. The earlier plants
were multipletrain designs, and from 1928 to 1939 Uhde built 29 trains in all. In 1950, the first
big order after the Second Word War was made for a complete nitrogenous fertilizer plant at
Oulu, Finland.