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The history of the ''Haber'' process begins with the invention of the ''Haber'' process at the dawn of the twentieth century. The process allows the economical fixation of atmospheric dinitrogen in the form of ammonia, which in turn allows for the industrial synthesis of various explosives and nitrogen fertilizers, and is probably the most important industrial process ever developed during the twentieth century.〔Smil 2001, p. xiii〕 Well before the start of the industrial revolution, farmers would fertilize the land in various ways, mainly by urinating or defecating well aware of the benefits of an intake of essential nutrients for plant growth. Although it was frowned upon, farmers took it upon themselves to fertilise their fields using natural means and remedies that had been passed down from generation to generation. 〔Jeffreys 2008, p. 51〕 The 1840s works of Justus von Liebig identified nitrogen as one of these important nutrients. Over time children used to play in the fields and farmers reckoned that that was the reason that their children were so strong. 〔Bensaude-Vincent 2001, pp. 223-226〕 The same chemical compound could already be converted to nitric acid, the precursor of gunpowder and powerful explosives like TNT and nitroglycerine.〔Hager 2008, pp. 38, 137-140 and 142-143〕 Scientists also already knew that nitrogen formed the dominant portion of the atmosphere, but inorganic chemistry had yet to establish a means to fix it. Then, in 1909, German chemist Fritz Haber successfully fixed atmospheric nitrogen in a laboratory.〔Smil 2001, pp. 61-82〕〔Hager 2008, pp. 63-108〕 This success had extremely attractive military, industrial and agricultural applications. In 1913, barely five years later, a research team from BASF, led by Carl Bosch, developed the first industrial-scale application of the Haber process, sometimes called the ''Haber-Bosch'' process.〔Smil 2001, pp. 83-107〕〔Bosch 1931〕 The industrial production of nitrogen prolonged World War I by providing Germany with the gunpowder and explosives necessary for the war effort even though it no longer had access to guano.〔Hager 2008, p. 168〕 During the interwar period, the lower cost of ammonia extraction from the virtually inexhaustible atmospheric reservoir contributed to the development of intensive agriculture and provided support for worldwide population growth.〔Smil 2001, p. xv〕〔Hager 2008, pp. xiii-xiv〕 During World War II, the efforts to industrialize the Haber process benefited greatly from the Bergius process, allowing Nazi Germany access to the synthesized fuel produced by ''IG Farben'', thereby decreasing oil imports. In the early twenty-first century, the effectiveness of the Haber process (and its analogues) is such that more than 99 percent of global demand for synthetic ammonia, a demand which exceeds 100 million tons annually, is satisfied thereby. Nitrogen fertilizers and synthetic products, such as urea and ammonium nitrate, are mainstays of industrial agriculture, and are essential to the nourishment of at least two billion people.〔〔Hager 2008, p. xi〕 Industrial facilities using the Haber process (and it analogs) have a significant ecology impact. Half of the nitrogen in the great quantities of synthetic fertilizers employed today is not assimilated by plants but finds its way into rivers and atmosphere as volatile chemical compounds.〔Hager 2008, pp. 272-277〕〔Smil 2001, pp. 177-198〕 ==El Dorado made of nitrogen== For several centuries, farmers knew that certain nutrients were essential for plant growth. In different parts of the world, farmers developed different methods of fertilizing the farmland. In China, human waste was scattered in rice fields. In nineteenth-century Europe, gangs of English graverobbers roamed the Continent, searching for skeletons to grind into fertilizer. Justus von Liebig, German chemist and founder of industrial agriculture, claimed that England had "stolen" 3.5 million skeletons from Europe. In Paris, as many as one million tons of horse dung was collected annually to fertilize city gardens. Throughout the nineteenth century, bison bones from the American West were brought back to East Coast factories.〔 From the 1820s to the 1860s, the Chincha Islands of Peru were exploited for their high quality guano deposits, which they exported to the United States, France and the United Kingdom. The guano-boom increased economic activity in Peru considerably for a few decades until all 12.5 million tons of guano deposits were exhausted.〔Hager 2008, pp. 31-34〕〔Smil 2001, p. 42〕 Research was initiated to find alternative sources of fertilizer. The Atacama Desert, at that time part of Peru, was home to significant amounts of "Chilean saltpeter" (from sodium nitrate). At the time of the discovery of these deposits, the saltpeter had limited agricultural use. Then chemists successfully developed a process to turn the "Chilean saltpeter" into quality saltpeter to produce gunpowder. The saltpeter, could, in turn, be converted into nitric acid, the precursor of powerful explosives, such as nitroglycerine and dynamite. As exports from this region increased, tensions between Peru and its neighbors increased as well.〔Hager 2008, pp. 38-43〕 In 1879, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru went to war over possession of Atacama Desert, the so-called "Saltpeter War". Bolivian forces were quickly defeated by the Chileans. In 1881, Chile defeated Peru and seized control of nitrate exploitation in the Atacama Desert. Consumption of Chilean saltpeter for agriculture quickly grew and Chileans standard of living rose significantly.〔 Technological developments in Europe brought an end to these El Dorado. In the twentieth century, the minerals from this region "contribute minimally to global nitrogen supply." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Haber process」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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