Saltpeter ore contains potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate, which are raw materials for the manufacture of gunpowder and an important source of agricultural fertilizer. This is where the importance of saltpeter is revealed, and the world's largest saltpeter mine comes from the Pampas Desert in Chile.

In the early years, because of this saltpeter mine, war broke out between Chile and neighboring Peru and Bolivia. After a bitter battle, Peru and Bolivia finally came to terms and ceded the mine to Chile.

Since then, the three countries have taken different paths, and Chile has become one of the three great powers in South America. One can imagine how much the saltpeter mine helped Chile, and because of this, Chile also became one of the important partners of the British Empire, and the sale of saltpeter mines was occupied by the British.

Other countries were dissatisfied with the British Empire's monopoly on the sale of saltpeter mines. Everyone is not stupid, how can they not know their intentions. Attempts to monopolize the raw materials of gunpowder led to the fact that countries had to take their opinions into account when armament.

For this reason, countries are putting pressure on the British to try to get a piece of the pie, and on the other hand, they are trying to find a way to bypass the purchase of saltpeter.

Among them, ammonia occupies an absolutely important position.

Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, which is a colorless gas at room temperature, has a strong pungent odor, and is highly soluble in water. Ammonia is also an important raw material for the manufacture of nitric acid, fertilizers, and explosives.

Since ammonia is so effective, there are many people who naturally study the industrial extraction of ammonia.

In 1795, an attempt was made to synthesize ammonia at atmospheric pressure, and later at 50 atmospheres, but both failed.

In the second half of the 19th century, great progress in physical chemistry made people realize that the reaction of ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and hydrogen is reversible, and increasing the pressure will push the reaction in the direction of ammonia generation: increasing the temperature will move the reaction in the opposite direction, but too low a temperature will make the reaction speed too small; The catalyst will have an important impact on the reaction.

In fact, this provides theoretical guidance for the test of synthetic ammonia. At that time, the authority of physical chemistry and Germany's Nernst clearly pointed out that nitrogen and hydrogen could synthesize ammonia under high pressure conditions, and provided some experimental data.

The French chemist Le Châtelet was the first to attempt to synthesize ammonia at high pressure, but the mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen with oxygen caused an explosion that caused him to abandon this dangerous experiment.

Although he gave up, there were still people who decided to continue the work, and Fritz Haber was the one who decided to carry out the ammonia experiment.

His experiments are somewhat different, he never blindly follows authority, but relies on experiments to test. After some precise experiments, Haber finally confirmed that Nernst's calculations were wrong.

Since it is wrong, then he needs to correct it. After a long period of experimentation and thinking, Haber finally obtained a complete ammonia synthesis process.

Water vapor is first blown on top of the red-hot coke to obtain a mixture of almost equal volumes of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The carbon monoxide is further reacted with water vapor under the action of a catalyst to obtain carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The mixed gas is then dissolved in water at a certain pressure, and the carbon dioxide is absorbed to produce purer hydrogen.

Similarly, water vapor is mixed with an appropriate amount of air, and through red-hot charcoal, the oxygen and carbon in the air will be absorbed and removed to form carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, so as to obtain the required nitrogen.

Ammonia is synthesized by a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen under high temperature and pressure conditions and under the action of a catalyst.

But what are the best high temperature and high pressure conditions?

What kind of catalyst is best?

This is something that will have to be explored with a lot of effort.

After constant experimentation and calculations, Haber finally achieved encouraging results. This means that under the conditions of high temperature of 600°C, 200 atmospheres and osmium as a catalyst, the yield of synthetic ammonia can be about 8%.

A conversion rate of 8% is not too high, and of course it will affect the economic efficiency of production. I am afraid that it is impossible to achieve the same high conversion rate as the production of sulfuric acid in the synthesis of ammonia, in which the conversion rate of sulfur dioxide oxidation reaction is almost close to 100%.

What to do? Haber believed that this process was feasible if the reaction gas could be cycled under high pressure, and the ammonia produced by the reaction could be continuously separated from this cycle. So he successfully designed the recycling process of the feed gas, which is the Haber method for ammonia synthesis.

When Haber developed a complete industrial ammonia synthesis technology, Carlo received the news immediately.

In fact, don't think about this kind of thing too complicated, just need Carlo to remember the synthetic ammonia or the name of the person, and someone will help him find it. First look up the existing people in Germany who are conducting ammonia research, find a familiar name or see what the other party is doing, and then ask people to find him, say that they want to fund the other party, and then wait for the results.

Hardly anyone would refuse his kindness, because research requires a lot of money, and very few people have a sufficient budget. To have a rich thigh, anyone is willing to accept it.

In addition, Harbour himself has a millionaire dream and wants to make some money by inventing. Therefore, the friendship from Italy was also accepted at the first time.

Therefore, after the completion of the research on the industrialization of synthetic ammonia, Carlo also got the news as soon as possible.

And Carlo, who got the news, of course, knew what it did.

What benefits mankind first put it away, the current cost of synthetic ammonia is not low, you just use it to make ammonia fertilizer and farmers use it. At present, the biggest role of synthetic ammonia is to replace the role of saltpeter in gunpowder.

Now that the industrialization of synthetic ammonia has been studied, Italy must not be left behind. So Carlo called the chief of the guard. "Mackellen, let the Savoy Fund invest in the construction of the ammonia plant."

"Yes, Your Majesty. ”

As for the king's orders, Maclen, who is the chief of the guard, will of course only obey them, this is the experience of being the chief of the guard for many years, and it is absolutely right to see less and talk more and listen more.

"Also, let Haber guide the construction of the factory."

Faced with the king's words, McLaan spoke. "Your Majesty, this may be a bit difficult."

"What's the matter, wouldn't Haber want to come?"

Carlo was a little surprised by the captain's words. He had read Haber's information, and this chemist was a bit greedy for money, and this kind of work to guide the construction of the factory would pay a lot of money.

"That's your Majesty, Mr. Haber is now preoccupied with selling ammonia technology to the German government, and may not be willing to come to Italy for guidance."

Although McLalen said it tactfully, Carlo immediately understood. Haber believes that the technology he studies is very important and valuable, so he does not want to have any surprises until the benefits are maximized.

For the other party's thoughts, Carlo is also very understanding, but he is a little unhappy in his heart, can the Kingdom of Italy still be difficult for him.

But it's going to rain, and my mother is going to get married, so let him go. If you don't want to come, you don't want to, the Italian ammonia plant can build it yourself.

In fact, when Italy obtained the ammonia synthesis technology, the German side also learned the news of Haber's successful research, and also learned that Italy had purchased the technology.

At the request of the German government, BASF assisted Haber in the construction of the first ammonia plant, three years earlier than in history.

It seems that Italy's attention has made Germany follow suit.

If you like my Stayuri, please collect it: () My StayProfit update speed is the fastest.