· Web viewThe Haber-Bosch process, explained simply, is the conversion of nitrogen gas in the...
Transcript of · Web viewThe Haber-Bosch process, explained simply, is the conversion of nitrogen gas in the...
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Haber-Bosch Process: Human’s Most Important Invention of the 20th Century
Jacob A. Miller
A Research Paper Presented to
the Department of History
of Bethel College, KS
in fulfillment of the requirements for the course
HIS 348: History of American Capitalism
November 21, 2016
Dr. Kip Wedel
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“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.”—Vaclav Smil
Introduction
Humans come from the soil and return to it. Yet we often forget that breath of life quickly
leaves without nourishment from calories. A majority of our calories come from grain crops
reliant on nitrogen-rich soil. This basic chain of life has sustained homo sapiens ever since we
discovered the first reliable, annual, monoculture wheat crop at the eastern edge of the
Mediterranean 10,000 years ago. From that point up until the mid-19th century, history’s concern
was food-centered. However, modern history repeatedly casts agriculture under the umbrella
term “nature” and ignores it: “For most members of the profession and, almost by definition, for
most Americans, history unfolds against a stable environmental backdrop. Nature is taken for
granted and passed over in the rush to discuss what really mattered—wars, elections, and the
other mainstays of political and intellectual history.”1 If nature is covered by historians, it is often
“nature as politics.”2 For instance, almost every U.S. textbook has some section discussing
Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and the conservation movement—but what about global
warming? This anthropocentric worldview is contested by Steinberg, who argues writing history
“must come from the ground up,” and take into account “ecological changes.”3
While environmental history takes a backseat, humanitarian justice initiatives sporting
sociopolitical historical lenses are in the driver’s seat, not mentioning overpopulation’s
1 Steinberg, Ted. Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), ix.
2 Ibid., ix.
3 Ibid., xi.
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deleterious effects are closer in the mirror than what appears. By 2050 we will have to feed two
billion more people.4 The expansion of the world’s population from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to
7.35 billion5 would not have been possible without the synthesis of ammonia, articulated by
Vaclav Smil, a global agricultural historian at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and
foremost expert on the 1909 Haber-Bosch process. 6 The Haber-Bosch process, explained
simply, is the conversion of nitrogen gas in the earth’s atmosphere into ammonia (a compound)
that can be used in fertilizer. Nitrogen accounts for 78 percent of the atmosphere and is the
naturally-occurring energy source in soil that grain crops use to make seeds. This process allows
farmers to spray additional nitrogen on crops in the form of fertilizer, resulting in increased seed
yield. When there are more seeds, the world can feed more humans. Environmental historians
now question whether or not the Haber-Bosch’s propulsion of production justifies its associated
costs.
In this research paper I argue: the 1909 Haber-Bosch process was the single most
important capitalist invention in the 20th century for human food consumption, but was
also the greatest contributor to the problems of land degradation and overpopulation that
we face in contemporary times. In order to better understand this claim, it is necessary to recap
the history leading up to Haber-Bosch (agriculture pre-1905), study Fritz Haber and Carl Boschs’
backgrounds, break down the details of the Haber-Bosch process, investigate what agriculture
looks like now as a result, and finally, discuss critical implications to a process that if it did not
4 Foley, Jonathan. “A Five Step Plan to Feed the World.” National Geographic, Copyright 2014 (Accessed October 30, 2016), 2.
5 United Census Bureau (accessed October 30, 2016).
6 Smil, Vaclav, Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000), 1.
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happen, “40 percent of humanity would not exist,” and perhaps many influential leaders such as
“Einstein or Dr. King” would never have been born.7
Agriculture Pre-1909
As previously stated, humans found their first reliable food source 10,000 years ago. However,
skip forward to 1492 in what is now North America, and Native Americans still relied on
hunting and gathering as its staple food source, as they would “migrate across the landscape
depending on the season of the year.”8 They did grow crops, but they were not the staple they are
today. “In the South, a warmer climate was more conducive to agriculture,” and in March,
women would “sow corn and beans” on the hillside, mixing crops. This would cut down on
pests, as “insects found it difficult to find their favorite crop.”9 They would leave to hunt buffalo
in the North and return in the fall to harvest. Native Americans would also burn to keep brush
down on the prairie. They were living with the ecosystems, using what nature provided to sustain
themselves, but respected the land and gave it time to heal. This is admittedly easier to do with
only 18 million people.10 Europeans came to Jamestown in 1607 and learned how to grow crops
from the Native Americans, but as the time passed, their approach to agriculture grew much
different from their teachers’ lessons. Europeans started planting only one crop at a time in rows
and took monoculture to the extreme. Europeans’ singularity and rigidity in farming percolated
throughout history, and was evident in the Land Ordinance of 1785, a grid system where a
“checkerboard pattern was etched across the West—one of the most far-reaching attempts at
rationalizing a landscape in world history.”11 It transformed the land itself into “a commodity, a
7 Ibid., 5.
8 Steinberg, Down to Earth, 15.
9 Ibid., 15.
10 Ibid., 14.
11 Ibid., 60.
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uniform set of boxes easily bought and sold.” The prairie grasses with long roots were cut to
make way for monoculture grain crops. By the 1860s, “a futures market in grain had even
emerged in Chicago.”12 In 1867 the first commercial fertilizer was introduced, with the
establishment of large phosphate mines in South Carolina,13 and in Florida (1880s).14 Much of
the soil in the South suffered from a natural deficiency in phosphorous, a problem the fertilizer
addressed with a great deal of initial success.15 “Cotton yields soared and…fertilizer also sped up
crop growth.”16 However, “increasing fertilizer use promoted the constant planting of cotton,
which eventually took its toll on the land.”17Also, weevils could easily eat up the cotton because
it was all grown together as an annual crop. In turn, more pesticides had to be applied, to the
detriment of the land and the avail of the farmer: “It…seemed to many…farmers a short cut to
prosperity, a royal road to good crops of cotton year after year.”18 But the yield of the crops
wasn’t outpacing drought, insects, and other damaging factors, creating the worry that farming
would not be able to feed the masses. However, by the early 20th century, that worry would soon
be quelled by two German scientists.
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch
Fritz Haber was born in Breslau, Prussia (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1868. From an early
age he was interested in chemistry. After studying at the University of Berlin, he transferred to
12 Ibid., 61.
13 Ibid., 102.
14 Bruulsema, T.W., and R.L. Mikkelsen. “Fertilizer Use for Horticultural Crops in the U.S. during the 20th Century.” HortTechnology 15, no. 1 (January—March 2005), 24.
15 Ibid., 103.
16 Ibid., 102.
17 Ibid., 102.
18 Ibid., 103.
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the University of Heidelberg in 1886 and studied under the famed German chemist Robert
Bunsen (yes, where the name “Bunsen Burner” comes from). Haber was appointed professor of
physical chemistry and electrochemistry at the Karlshruhe Institute of Technology. There he
became friends with Albert Einstein. While he was a professor in 1904, scientists warned him
that the world would not be able to produce enough food to feed its growing human population.
Haber listened.19 Ironically, humans find themselves in the same situation a century later, no
thanks to Haber himself. Haber did not just transform agriculture, he transformed the military.20
Historians describe Haber as the “father of chemical warfare” for his work developing and
deploying chlorine and other poisonous gases during World War I. Thousands of steel cylinders
containing chlorine gas had been transported to German positions. There would be no launching
or dropping of the gas on Allied troops; instead, Haber calculated, the best delivery system was
the prevailing winds in Belgium. After weeks of waiting for ideal winds—strong enough to carry
the gas away from the German troops, but not so strong they would dissipate the gas weapons
before they could take effect against the enemy—the Germans released more than 168 tons of
chlorine gas from nearly 6,000 canisters at sunrise on April 22. A sickly cloud, one witness told
the New York Times, “like a yellow low wall,” began to drift toward the French trenches. The
cloud settled over some 10,000 troops. More than half died by asphyxiation within minutes. In
total, Haber’s creation killed millions, including Haber’s relatives.21 Not only did his work help
Germany prolong WWI, he also developed the “Zyklon B” poison gas used in WWII’s
19 Charles, Daniel. Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare. (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005), 36.
20 Ibid., 151.
21 Ibid., xiii.
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Holocaust. Combine this with the fact that his process helped create such a population boom and
it’s clear that Haber, paradoxically, affected more lives and deaths than anybody else.22
Carl Bosch was born in Cologne,23 Germany to a successful gas and plumbing supplier.24
Bosch attended the University of Leipzig, and this is where he studied under Johannes
Wislicenus, and he obtained his doctorate in 1898 for research in organic chemistry. After he left
in 1899 he took an entry level job at BASF, then Germany's largest chemical and dye firm.25
Bosch met up with Haber when he was a professor at University in 1904. Bosch, a critic of many
Nazi policies, was gradually relieved of his high positions after Hitler became chancellor, and
fell into despair and alcoholism. He died in Heidelberg.26 Whereas Haber was more focused on
the technical aspects of the chemistry and how to create the ammonia, Bosch’s contribution was
more about making the process work on a large industrial scale. To do this, he had to construct a
plant and equipment that would function effectively under high gas pressures and high
temperatures. This eventually led to what we see now wheeling down rural streets—a white
ammonia tank (complete with the warning “Caution, explosive”) hooked up to a pickup or
tractor. These white tanks help account for an estimated 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer
every year.27
Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1918, while Bosch won in 1931. They were voted the
world’s most influential chemical engineers of all time by members of the Institution of
22 Smil, Enriching the Earth, 155.
23 Cologne is also a sickly cloud of gas junior-high students use too much of.
24 “Carl Bosch (German chemist).” Encyclopedia Britannica. (Accessed October 31, 2016), 1.
25 Ibid., 2.
26 Ibid., 5.27 Ibid., 3.
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Chemical Engineers. High praise indeed, but after all, “the process sustains the food base for the
equivalent of half the world’s population today.”28
Haber-Bosch Process
Today, on average, one-half of the nitrogen in a human body comes from synthetically
fixed sources, the product of Haber-Bosch.29 This is a staggering fact that habitually falls silent.
Under high temperature and very high pressure, hydrogen and nitrogen (from thin air) are
combined to produce ammonia. This is what Haber was able to prove in his 1905 work, The
Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions (translated into English in 1908). As Haber himself
explains, this book deals with “technical, rather than theoretical chemistry.”30 In this 353-page
slog of a read, Haber ultimately finds that high pressures in combination with a suitable catalyst,
immediate removal of the ammonia formed through rapid cooling, and repeated recycling of any
unreacted dinitrogen and dihydrogen make the ammonia synthesis practical.
Creighton cites Haber’s work in his 1919 essay, How the Nitrogen Problem has been
solved. He outlines the production of ammonia from cyanamide in accordance with the equation:
“CaCN2 + 3H2O = CaCO2 + 2NH3.”31 Like Haber, Creighton is technical, but less so. He
concludes by stating: “The process at the present time involves a large investment and high labor
and repair charges, but, as previously mentioned, if the mechanical difficulties are successfully
overcome, it appears that nitrogen may be fixed in the form of cyanide more cheaply than by any
of the processes already described.”32 Note the language here, especially “investment,”
28 Smil, Enriching the Earth, 54.29 Ibid., 121.30 Haber, Fritz. “The Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions: Seven Lectures.” (London: London, New York Bombay, and Calcutta, Longmans, Green, and co., 1908). Library of the University of California (Accessed October 30, 2016), x. 31 Creighton, Henry. “How the Nitrogen Problem has been solved.” Journal of the Franklin Institute no. 1 (January 1919): 599-610. Google Books (accessed October 30, 2016), 606.
32 Ibid., 610.
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“mechanical,” and “cheaply.” These all derive from the stance that the world is merely
mechanical, humans can overcome difficulties with more science, and that costs (a human
construct) are merely monetary, not including the cost of natural resources. Ironically, it is those
very natural resources on which American capitalism has been, and still is, dependent.
Agriculture Post-1909
“The 20th century has been a time of unprecedented change in food production practices
in the United States. Advancements in areas such as plan nutrition, improved genetics, pest
control, irrigation, farm mechanization, and transportation have combined to radically transform
the horticultural industry. Despite the tremendous changes in the nature of fruit and vegetable
production during the past 100 years, many of the same issues, such as nutrient efficiency, crop
quality, labor costs, marketing, and profitability, are still concerns of farmers today.”33 Thus,
Nitrogen fixation is still employed all over the world.34 One percent of the world’s energy supply
is used for it. “In 2004, it sustained roughly 2 out of 5 people. As of 2015, it already sustains
nearly 1 out of 2; soon it will sustain 2 out of 3.”35 Billions of people would not exist without it
and our dependence will only increase as the global count moves to nine billion by 2050.36 Grain
crops are Haber-Bosch’s greatest friend. Grains—with corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice being the
top four—account for 70 percent of the worlds’ calories grown on 70 percent of the worlds’
acreage.37
Implications
33 Bruulsema, Fertilizer Use for Horticultural Crops in the U.S. during the 20th Century, 24.
34 See Figure 2 for worldwide fertilizer consumption from 1950-2013.
35 Schmidhuber, Jürgen. “Haber & Bosch: Most influential persons of the 20th century.” Copyright 2016 (accessed October 30, 2016), 1-2.
36 Ibid., 2.
37 Wes Jackson (former President of The Land Institute) in discussion with the author, October 2016.
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There are several implications moving forward in a post-Haber-Bosch world, but two
pertinent ones stand out.
Initially, the codification of technological fundamentalism could prove egregious for
humans. To recap, the Haber-Bosch process has been called the most important invention of the
20th century as it “detonated the population explosion” of 7.35 billion people.38 To put this into
perspective, the 70 million deaths of World War I and World War II nearly vanish next to these
numbers. Thus, because of its role in the world’s population boom, a paradox emerges. Haber-
Bosh got us into overpopulation problem, and Foley says it could get us out.39 It states that in
order to feed nine billion, which will necessitate twice as much grain production worldwide,
humans will have to use the land more “efficiently.”40 But what does that mean? That we throw
more ammonia on crops, use GMOs, and pack the corn closer together? Not to mention, Jevon’s
Paradox states that as efficiency increases, so too does energy consumption—a direct correlation.
Efficiency’s undercurrent assumption is that any new technology will save us, what some
describe as “technological fundamentalism.” Wes Jackson, President Emeritus of The Land
Institute, sees it as worse than any religious fundamentalism.41 Although this may seem fatalist,
what happens when means (energy consumption) to a max-yield-end…ends? By trying to save to
our species, we could be creating the perfect conditions for its gradual destruction. Even when
adopting a completely anthropocentric worldview and assuming every human is valuable and we
should do everything possible to extend each life, problems emerge that social justice aims to
remedy. Figure 1 shows that the explosion in population growth has occurred in less-developed
38 Smil, Enriching the Earth, 415.
39 Foley, Five Steps to Feed the World, 3.
40 Ibid., 4.
41 Jackson, October 2016.
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countries where there are more mouths to feed. The effects are easy to observe: a concentration
of homeless in cities, impoverished who have little to no access to water and food, and so on.
This is strictly a human-centered focus. What about what the natural systems destroyed in the
process? A recent headline proclaims, “Carl Bosch is the reason you are alive right now and the
Gulf of Mexico isn’t.” This is referring to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico the size of
Connecticut that is a result of nitrogen run-off. Thirty million aggregate acres of soil erosion
every year cause the excess nitrogen to flow into rivers and streams, which then pour into the
Mississippi River and eventually, the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists knew nitrogen was crucial to
plant life; they also knew the earth’s supply of usable quantities was quite limited. Apparently
the latter fact didn’t seem as important to Haber or Bosch in 1909, because their writings contain
plenty of “we can,” but not “should we?”
Second, Haber-Bosch’s continued use by farmers could mask the real problem: annual,
monoculture grain crops. Steinberg mentions “single-crop farming is always a perilous
enterprise.”42 Wendell Berry maintains that when modern Universities adopt “Agriscience” that
furthers annual monoculture crops requiring herbicides and pesticides, production becomes
divorced from consumption.43 In other words, when you take the culture part out of food
production, you remove the people as well. Further, the prairies that once graced the earth
contained polycultures, and so when farmers jam pack as much corn as they can on an acre, the
natural cycle of dying and growing is broken, leaving the soil’s nitrogen sucked dry. Cue the
need for bigger sprayers—which already don’t fit on county roads—requiring increased fossil
fuel usage.44 “Although modern agriculture has increased food production faster than population
42 Steinberg, Down to Earth, 103.
43 Berry, Wendell, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. 1st ed (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1977), 25-26.
44 See Figure 3.
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growth in recent decades, there are concerns that existing models of ‘industrial agriculture’ are
unsustainable45 due to long-run trends towards increased fossil energy costs.”46 All of this has led
to suggestions that future food production must call for smaller-scale and more labor-intensive
farming systems.47 However, discussion of a ‘post-industrial’ agriculture remain polarized
between visions of a more energy-efficient mechanized agriculture on the one hand, and labor-
intensive farming by ‘new peasantries.’48 However, can anti-growth, small-scale farming ever
exist within a capitalist system?
Conclusion
By summarizing the history leading up to Haber-Bosch, learning Fritz Haber and Carl
Boschs’ backgrounds, breaking down the details of the Haber-Bosch process, investigating what
agriculture looks like now as a result, and finally, discussing crucial implications of using the
process moving forward, one thing is more clear: the 1909 Haber-Bosch process was the single
most important capitalist invention in the 20th century for human food consumption, but
was also the greatest contributor to the problems of land degradation and overpopulation
that we face in contemporary times. We come from the soil and return to it, and should ask the
question Haber and Bosch did not ask: when we return to the soil, do we really want our bodies
seeped in chemicals that shouldn’t be there? If not, then the land likely does not want that either.
45 See Figures 4 for the relationship between food and energy prices.
46 Woodhouse, Philip. “Beyond Industrial Agriculture? Some Questions about Farm Size, Productivity and Sustainability.” Journal of Agrarian Change 10, no. 3 (July 2010): 437-453. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 3, 2016), 437.
47 Ibid., 437.
48 Ibid., 438.
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Figure 1.49
Figure 2.50
49 Schmidhuber, Haber & Bosch: Most influential persons of the 20th century, 1.
50 “World Fertilizer Consumption, 1950-2013,” EPI from Worldwatch, IFA, Earth Policy Institute, www.earth.policy.org.
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Figure 3.51
Figure 4.52
51 Woodruff, Paul H. “Earth’s population.” Graph. Journal of Environmental Engineering 132, no. 4 (2006): 434-444. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed December 14, 2007), 435.
52 Ibid., 435.
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