THE NOTROGEN PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 January 1918, Page 2

THE NOTROGEN PROBLEM.

BIUTISH BEABINO I'll (JIT. MAKIX'J Ul* OUR LEli-WAY. London, Nov. 30. A statement has been issued bv the 'Munitions Department which embodies a national peceavi of the most serious order, along with a striking narrative of tin- energy ivith which our officials have Applied themselves to the task of recovering lost ground. The world's consumption of nitrogen compounds as fertilisers almost doubles every ten years. In 1913 .it was 2J juillion tons of Chile nitrate and almost H million ions of sulphate of ammonia. As long as 1395, says the official statement, Sir William Crooke9 predicted a shortage in the world'? wheat supply, and urged the vital importance of finding other sources of nitrogenous fertilisers. Sir William himself experimented in'obtaining nitrogen from the air. in which it exists in unlimited quantities. Other countries appreciated the possibilities thus indicated, Norway, being at an advantage, with cheap water power, adopted the arc process, which produces nitric acid direct from the atmosphere, but "'oh ly by 'normous consumption of power. Cier--mary concentrated on making'a process worked by Professor Ha be! for-' producing ammonia 'by the unioit of hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen at extremely high, pressures and at an elevated temperature: We, however, with' whom the idea of nitrogen, fixation originated, did nothing, the ammonia recovered at gasworks- -and coke-ovens being practically the only form of combined nitrogen producea in this country. MOTEL EUROPA SELF-SUPPOBfIXfI. When the war began, the _en,tral Powers, by extending their established nitrogen rotation processes and' i>y developing others, 'such as the cyaniaiiiulc process for the production of nitrolim 01 ammonia, arid the oXidatipii process for converting ammonia into nitric acid, liecame self-sustaining Although the'eom•maiul of the seas enabled us to import from Chile all tire nitrate of soda we needed for munitions and agriculture, and so escape the consequences of our scientific neglect, the beginning ot the submarine campaign, in February, 1910, forced lis to review the position. The foreign processes being carefully guarded our Nitrogen Product Committee, set up in June, 1916, had to discover the working details of some of the more important processes, and how to make them commercially practicable. Attention was first directed to the problem of the production of synthetic ammonia. The committee then turned its energies to bringing to a commercial stage the ammonia oxidation process for producing nitric acid from gas-work.? and other forms of ammonja, a process which had not hitherto been practised in England, although worked to some extent on the Continent. The fruitfulness of the committee's enquiries led to the issue-of-an-interim report in February, 1917, and on this the Minister. Dr. Addison, decided to take action among other things upon the ammonia oxidation process. The Explosives ..Department 'has since taken over the J:ask of establishing the process on a. commercial basis. Manufacturers interested in ammonia, oxidation met the Comptroller and tJie research staff, with the practical outcome chat in several of bur largest chemical works The process is being introduced to take the place of the nitrepots used iu the making of sulphuric acid by the chamber method. Seeing that before British chemists concentrated their attention on the problem the annual consumption of Cliiie nitra,te for the purpose in question was 18,000 tons, the saving of shipping space by the. action of the ammonia oxidation process niav become very material.

The investigation of the Saber process ha* involved the solution ui several difTi■ cult chemical engineering- problems The whole of the conditions governing the process liave been thoroughly studied, with the result that st meth'od if working has been devised whereby the. o;Utput of ammonia per unit of plant has been increased to a figure which as far as is known, has never been approached, even in Germany, the home of the process. A semi-technical Haber tfn?t is now in operation, and is providing data concerning 1 tile few further detail? to bo elucidated prior to the erection c! <l fullsized jnit. As an outcome'of this synthetic ammonia research, work, a. process has been discovered for the preparation on a large scale of tine purest hydrogen, iand the promise displayed in small scale tfork is now being put to the teat by semi-commercial trials. Although the committed has concentrated particularly on processes valuable as war measures,' the possibilities of nitrogen fixation in relation to agricultural and commercial requirements after the war have not been lost sight of. The manufacture of cyanamide or nitrolim, a, valuable fertiliser, lias been investigated by a deputation which proceeded abroad for the purpose. It is not unlikely tliat the industry may -be established in this country to meet the demand for fertiliser that is anticipated as a result of the Board of Agriculture's ijew polifiy, which will lying several million additional acres into cultivation. To" establish certain nitrogea fixation, processes qii a sound basis, cheaper electric power will 'be imperative. An enquiry has been made as to the possibility of. cheapening tlve production of electric power from coal by the use of ipot!)iod s permitting of the recoverv of ammonia, fuel oils, and other .by-pro-ducts hitherto wasted when raw coal has been directly used Schemes for the utilisation oi various undeveloped waterpowers in t'ffis country for electric power production have also been, examined. The survey of a particular drainage area has recently been completed, and has revealed a potential source of 40,000 electrical horse-power in an important industrial .area. Finally the Nitrogen Products Committee ha.t investigated... the probable requirements of this country for nitrogen compounds, and has gone carefully into ( lie probable costs of manufacture bv the various synthetic and non-synthetic methods in Kie light of experience in allied industries. Moreover, in order to review the nitrogen problem as it affects the Empire the committee has got into direct communication with official representatives of Australia, Canada, New Zealand South Africa, Egypt, and India