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The Invention that Killed Humanity before Saving it.

“The story of the 100-year-old discovery which killed millions of people and now billions of people are alive because of it ".

By Anuraj RajeevPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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The Invention that Killed Humanity before Saving it.
Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

In 1919, Fritz Haber discovered a simple chemical reaction which was later considered as one of the most important discoveries of the century. It was combining nitrogen and hydrogen molecules to form ammonia. The discovery of ammonia and providing an industrial source had delayed Germany losing the First World War by more than two years. At the end of the nineteenth century, Germany was running out of Chilean nitrates used for the production of explosives. The situation had worsened by the raw materials supply cut by allies, blocking the South American ports. Huge deposits of nitrites were transported from Chile in South America. The Germans were badly in need of an alternative for nitrogen compounds for the manufacture of explosives. The discovery of the Haber process facilitated Germans to use ammonia for the supply of nitrogen compounds for the manufacture of explosives in the First World War. So indirectly, the invention of Haber’s process is responsible for millions of life who were killed in the First World War.

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On the contrary, the discovery of ammonia is the reason why billions of people are alive today on the earth. The production of crops depends upon the presence of nitrogen in the soil. As the crops are produced more and more, the nitrogen present in the soil gets consumed. The natural replenishment of nitrogen is a very slow process, but we need to produce food crops at a much faster rate to fulfill the global food demand. Even though 79 % of the atmosphere is comprised of nitrogen, the soil cannot absorb this nitrogen because nitrogen molecules are bonded through strong triple bonds in the atmosphere. Ammonia enabled to produce nitrogen compounds which are dispensed in the soil gets absorbed at faster rates. Around 80% of the world’s total ammonia produced is used as fertilizer which helps to supplement nitrogen to the soil. The world’s current population is around 7 billion, without the discovery of ammonia, we will be able to produce food for only 3 billion people. Haber was the scientist who converted air into fertilizer.

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Today ammonia is one of the largest produced chemical compounds around 131 million metric tonnes produced per year. It is also one of the highest energy-consuming processes. Around 2% of the global energy demand is used for ammonia synthesis.

In 1918, Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his discovery.

It was followed by disagreement across scientists, Nobel Prize awarded for research resulting for the greatest benefit of mankind, awarded for the research which leads to the use of poisonous gas by the German army to kill millions of people. The story goes like famous physicist Ernest Rutherford refused to shake hands with Haber showing the disagreement about the decision of the Nobel Prize committee.

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The conversion of nitrogen from the atmosphere and hydrogen into ammonia is a very slow process in normal conditions. For increasing the yield the reaction should be conducted in very high temperature and high-pressure conditions. At the time of the discovery of ammonia synthesis by Haber, sophisticated and reliable equipment was not available widely. Carl Bosch, a German scientist and engineer who was later known as the pioneer of high-pressure industrial chemistry came up with a solution for the industrial scaled-up production of ammonia. In 1931, Carl Bosch was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the discovery of a method for industrial mass production of ammonia.

By Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Now, most of the ammonia is used for agricultural purposes. But ammonia can be easily converted into nitric acid. Nitric acid is used as raw materials for explosives like TNT, Nitrocellulose, and Nitro-glycerin. The Haber process later knows as the Haber-Bosch process considering the contribution of Bosch in developing the industrial commercial production of ammonia. Ammonia which was discovered for the mass massacre was later known to be the savior of humanity.

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