Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production

by Vaclav Smil

Overview

Dr. Smil is the world's authority on nitrogenous fertilizer.

The industrial synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen has been of greater fundamental importance to the modern world than the invention of the airplane, nuclear energy, space flight, or television. The expansion of the world's population from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to today's six billion would not have been possible without the synthesis of ammonia.

In Enriching the Earth, Vaclav Smil begins with a discussion of nitrogen's unique status in the biosphere, its role in crop production, and traditional means of supplying the nutrient. He then looks at various attempts to expand natural nitrogen flows through mineral and synthetic fertilizers. The core of the book is a detailed narrative of the discovery of ammonia synthesis by Fritz Haber--a discovery scientists had sought for over one hundred years--and its commercialization by Carl Bosch and the chemical company BASF. Smil also examines the emergence of the large-scale nitrogen fertilizer industry and analyzes the extent of global dependence on the Haber-Bosch process and its biospheric consequences. Finally, it looks at the role of nitrogen in civilization and, in a sad coda, describes the lives of Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch after the discovery of ammonia synthesis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262693134
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/27/2004
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	358
Sales rank:	928,780
Product dimensions:	7.05(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.81(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including Energy and Civilization, published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that "there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil."

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Transforming the World	xiii
1	Nitrogen in Agriculture: Discovering the Basics	1
	Discovering Nitrogen	2
	Nitrogen in Crop Production	5
	Nitrogen and Legumes	13
	Completing the Nitrogen Cycle	16
2	Traditional Sources of Nitrogen: Preindustrial Agricultures	21
	Recycling of Organic Matter	22
	Farmyard Manures	25
	Cultivation of Legumes	28
	Nitrogen Balances in Traditional Farming	31
	Limits to Recycling and Legume Cultivation	35
3	New Sources of the Nutrient: Searching for Fixed Nitrogen	39
	Guano	40
	Sodium Nitrate	43
	By-product Ammonia from Coking	48
	Synthesis of Cyanamide	51
	Electric Arc Process	53
	Plant Nutrients and Future Food Supply	55
4	A Brilliant Discovery: Fritz Haber's Synthesis of Ammonia	61
	Haber's Predecessors	61
	Fritz Haber	65
	Haber's First Experiments with Ammonia	68
	Nernst and Haber	70
	BASF and Haber	74
	High-Pressure Catalytic Synthesis	77
5	Creating an Industry: Carl Bosch and BASF	83
	Carl Bosch	85
	Designing High-Pressure Converters	87
	Finding New Catalysts	93
	Producing the Feedstocks and Oxidizing Ammonia	97
	The First Ammonia Plant at Oppau	99
	Ammonia Synthesis for War	103
6	Evolution of Ammonia Synthesis: Diffusion and Innovation	109
	Slow Diffusion of Ammonia Production: 1918-1950	111
	Expansion and Changes Since 1950	116
	Natural Gas-Based Ammonia Synthesis	118
	Single-Train Plants with Centrifugal Compressors	122
	Continuing Innovation	127
7	Synthetic Fertilizers: Varieties and Applications	133
	Nitrogen Fertilizers	134
	Fertilizer Applications: Global Views	138
	Fertilizer Nitrogen in Global Crop Production	143
	Regional and National Perspectives	145
	The Most Productive Agroecosystems	152
8	Our Dependence on Nitrogen: Agricultures and Populations	155
	How Many People Does Fertilizer Nitrogen Feed?	156
	Human Protein Requirements	161
	Nitrogen in U.S. Agriculture	164
	Nitrogen in Chinese Farming	167
	Growing Dependence during the Twenty-first Century	172
9	Consequences of the Dependence: Human Interference in Nitrogen's Biospheric Cycle	177
	Intensifying the Global Cycling of Nitrogen	178
	What Happens to Fertilizer Nitrogen	180
	Nitrogen Losses in Modern Farming	184
	Excess Nitrogen and Human Health	188
	Nitrogen and Natural Ecosystems	192
10	Nitrogen and Civilization: Managing the Nitrogen Cycle	199
	What Has Been Accomplished	201
	More Efficient Fertilizing	206
	Stabilized Populations	211
	Rational Diets	214
	A Long View	217
	Postscript	223
	Appendixes	233
	Notes	253
	Name Index	329
	Subject Index	331

What People are Saying About This

E. T. York

I am tremendously impressed with this book. It will make a very significant contribution to the literature on the Haber-Bosch processof nitrogen synthesis, but perhaps even more significant, to putting into perspective the importance of nitrogen fertilizer to humanity.

James N. Galloway

The history of an industrial process that creates ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen sounds at best boring. However, in his sixteenth book, Vaclav Smil has done his usual outstanding job of creating a fascinating reading adventure. Starting with the statement that almost two thirds of the global population owes its existence to the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process in the early 20th century, the book reviews the history of the discovery, provides, fascinating details about the driving forces behind the discovery, and as important, looks to the future. Anyone with an interest in how humans modify their environment will find this book fascinating.

Kenneth G. Cassman

What is the most important technological innovation of the 20th century—telecommunications, nuclear energy, computers, space flight, or molecular transformation of the genetic code? Vaclav Smil makes the case instead for the Haber-Bosch process, which allows industrial synthesis of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and provides the foundation of our human food supply. his detailed story of the scientific trail that led to development of this process and its global impact is both enjoyable to read and an important contribution to the history of modern science and technology.

Endorsement

Vaclav Smil has built a road between the bleak, windswept fields of the catastrohists on one side and the sunny, bountiful fields of the cornucopians on the other. The road offers no easy passage. But followed with intelligence and persistence it has high promise of taking us to a future in which all people everywhere have the food they need for healthy, productive lives. Smil has performed a valuable public service.

—Pierre Crosson, Senior Fellow and Resident Consultant, Resources for the Future

From the Publisher

I am tremendously impressed with this book. It will make a very significant contribution to the literature on the Haber-Bosch processof nitrogen synthesis, but perhaps even more significant, to putting into perspective the importance of nitrogen fertilizer to humanity.

—E. T. York, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Florida, and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences, University of Florida

The history of an industrial process that creates ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen sounds at best boring. However, in his sixteenth book, Vaclav Smil has done his usual outstanding job of creating a fascinating reading adventure. Starting with the statement that almost two thirds of the global population owes its existence to the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process in the early 20th century, the book reviews the history of the discovery, provides, fascinating details about the driving forces behind the discovery, and as important, looks to the future. Anyone with an interest in how humans modify their environment will find this book fascinating.

—James N. Galloway, Professor and Chair, Environmental Sciences Department, University of Virginia

Vaclav Smil has written a fascinating review of Fritz Haber and Carl bosch's contribution to the world's food production through their discovery of the ammonium synthesis process. We hope that this book will stimulate efforts to make best use of the derived nitrogen fertilizers.

—Luc M. Maene, Director General, International Fertilizer Industry Association

What is the most important technological innovation of the 20th century—telecommunications, nuclear energy, computers, space flight, or molecular transformation of the genetic code? Vaclav Smil makes the case instead for the Haber-Bosch process, which allows industrial synthesis of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and provides the foundation of our human food supply. his detailed story of the scientific trail that led to development of this process and its global impact is both enjoyable to read and an important contribution to the history of modern science and technology.

—Kenneth G. Cassman, Professor and Head, Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska

Vaclav Smil has built a road between the bleak, windswept fields of the catastrohists on one side and the sunny, bountiful fields of the cornucopians on the other. The road offers no easy passage. But followed with intelligence and persistence it has high promise of taking us to a future in which all people everywhere have the food they need for healthy, productive lives. Smil has performed a valuable public service.

—Pierre Crosson, Senior Fellow and Resident Consultant, Resources for the Future

Pierre Crosson

Vaclav Smil has built a road between the bleak, windswept fields of the catastrohists on one side and the sunny, bountiful fields of the cornucopians on the other. The road offers no easy passage. But followed with intelligence and persistence it has high promise of taking us to a future in which all people everywhere have the food they need for healthy, productive lives. Smil has performed a valuable public service.

Luc M. Maene

Vaclav Smil has written a fascinating review of Fritz Haber and Carl bosch's contribution to the world's food production through their discovery of the ammonium synthesis process. We hope that this book will stimulate efforts to make best use of the derived nitrogen fertilizers.

Editorial Reviews

"I am tremendously impressed with this book. It will make a very significant contribution to the literature on the Haber-Bosch process of nitrogen synthesis, but perhaps even more significant, to putting into perspective the importance of nitrogen fertilizer to humanity."--E. T. York, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Florida, and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences, University of Florida

& quot; I am tremendously impressed with this book. It will make a very significant contribution to the literature on the Haber-Bosch process of nitrogen synthesis, but perhaps even more significant, to putting into perspective the importance of nitrogen fertilizer to humanity.& quot; -- E. T. York, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Florida, and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences, University of Florida

" I am tremendously impressed with this book. It will make a very significant contribution to the literature on the Haber-Bosch process of nitrogen synthesis, but perhaps even more significant, to putting into perspective the importance of nitrogen fertilizer to humanity." -- E. T. York, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Florida, and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences, University of Florida

-- E. T. York, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Florida, and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences, University of Florida

""Broad and imaginative, meticulously argued and fully documented, yet lively and readable, this surprising book...opens a door wide to a dimly lit corner of high-tech, to offer us a new understanding of major change."

From the Publisher