Birkeland and Eyde

The process of Birkeland and Eyde involved the direct combination of dinitrogen, dioxygen, and water (AH = -30.3 kJ) ... 

The direct production of nitric oxide from air at high temperatures in an electric arc by the Birkeland and Eyde or Cyanamide processes was feasible, but could only be used in locations with abrmdant and cheap hydroelectric power. This clearly was not the long term answer, and a series of significant advances initiated by Ostwald at Leipzig, following discussions with William Pfeffer, soon followed. Ostwald, himself, worked on the catalytic synthesis of ammonia, and its oxidation to nitric acid. 

Before 1900 the large-scale production of nitric acid was based entirely on the reaction of concentrated sulfuric acid with NaNOa and KNOj (p. 407). The first successful process for making nitric acid directly from Ni and O2 was devised in 1903 by E. Birkeland and S. Eyde in Norway and represented the first industrial fixation of nitrogen ... 

In K. Birkeland and S. Eyde s furnace, the arc between the electrodes is maintained by an alternating current of about 5000 volts and 50 periods per second, and is spread by a strong magnetic field into two semicircular discs of flame at right angles to the axis of the electrodes. The sheets of flame alternately rise and break with great rapidity in the upper and lower half of the reaction chamber. The impression on the eye is that of a steady circular sheet of flame about 1-8 metres in diameter. The electric flame is produced in a flat box of refractory... 

Fig. 61.—K. Birkeland and S. Eyde s Furnace (Diagrammatic representation of the semicircular arcs).

The number did not increase until after 1906 as shown in Table 10.1. That was when hydroelectric power plants started to be built in Norway in larger numbers. The power was cheap and had to be used locally. That stimulated the construction of chemical plants for producing calcium nitrate (Norwegian saltpetre) using a new process developed by the professor of physics Kristian Birkeland and the construction engineer and industrialist Sam Eyde. Also other processes were developed later depending on cheap electric power and requiring chemical expertise. 

At about the same time that the Birkeland-Eyde process was developed, the Frank-Caro cyanamide process was commercialized (14). In this process limestone is heated to produce lime, which then reacts with carbon in a highly energy-demanding reaction to give calcium carbide. Reaction with N2 gives calcium cyanamide [150-62-7] which hydrolyzes to ammonia and calcium carbonate (see Cyanamides). 

The discovery of chemical N2 fixation under ambient conditions is more compatible with a simple, complementary, low temperature and low pressure system, possibly operated electrochemically and driven by a renewable energy resource (qv), such as solar, wind, or water power, or other off-peak electrical power, located near or in irrigation streams. Such systems might produce and apply ammonia continuously, eg, directly in the rice paddy, or store it as an increasingly concentrated ammoniacal solution for later appHcation. In fact, the Birkeland-Eyde process of N2 oxidation in an electric arc has been... 

Birkeland-Eyde industrial oxidation of N2 to NO and hence HNO3 (now obsolete). 

N1 -acylsulfanilamides, 23 508 A21-heterocyclic derivatives, 23 508 Ar -heterocyclic-Ar -acylsulfanilamides, 23 508 A21-heterocyclic sulfanilamides, 23 507—508 2V-(2-aminoethyl)-l,3-propylenediamine physical properties, 5 486t 2V-(2-aminoethyl)-piperazine (AEP), 5 485 N2 oxidation, Birkeland-Eyde process of, 27 291-292, 316. See also Dinitrogen entries Nitrogen entries N3 -P5 phosphoramidates, 27 630-631 Na+, detection in blood, 24 54. See also Sodium entries Nabarro-Herring creep, 5 626 Nacol 18, chain length and linearity, 2 10t Nacreous pigments, 7 836-837 19 412 Nacrite, 6 659... 

Arc process. The arc or Birkeland-Eyde process was devised in Norway. This process is no longer used extensively and is of interest here only because of certain unusual features. By this method, the endother-mal reaction... 

Other commercial processes for nitrogen fixation include the cyanide process [20], in which potassium cyanide is produced by passing nitrogen through a tube containing a red-hot mixture of potash and carbon the cyanamide process [21], in which calcium is heated to about 1000°C under nitrogen to form calcium cyanamide (CaNCN) and the arc process [20] (also known as the Birkeland-Eyde process), in which nitrogen is oxidized... 

Although five different arc furnaces were mentioned in a previous chapter as having been used in commercial operation, only three of these have enjoyed large-scale operation. These are the Birkeland-Eyde, the Schoiiherr, and the Pauling furnaces. 

The Birkeland-Eyde and the Schonherr furnaces both are in iipcriitiiin at the Rjukan plant of the Norsk Plydro Conipanv. I his plant is really the only large installation nf the arc process. Its rated capacity of approximately... 

The process is named for the Norwegian physicist and chemist Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland (1867-1917) and the Norwegian engineer and industrialist Samuel Eyde (1866-1940). See also nitrogen fixation. 

Electrochemistry and nitrogen fixation. Top (a) Birkeland-Eyde arc (b) sectional elevation of Birkeland-Eyde furnace, at right angles to arc disc (c) Schonherr-Hessberger furnace. Below manufacture of calcium cyanamide, via calcium carbide. (Source C.L. Mantell, Industrial Electrochemistry [New York McGraw-Hill, 2nd edition, 1940], pages 573, 574, 575, and 521, respectively.)... 

In the Birkeland-Eyde process, combination of N2 and O2 was achieved by an electric arc whereby the necessary high temperatures (>3000 K) could be reached. Only small yields of NO were obtained and the waste of electric energy was enormous. Nevertheless, in 1905, the first industrial plant started operation in Norway where electric energy was cheap. Soon BASF also initiated the development of an electric arc method the project was, however, shortly abandoned with the realization of the Haber-Bosch process. 

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