Fertilizer industry history

Plant life has existed for millions of years, but for a plant to be healthy at least 22 different chemical elements are necessary (Table 3.11) [4], A deficiency in any one of these nutrients can result in limited plant growth. The addition of nutrients to the soil for enhanced plant growth has a long history dating back to early civilization. However, in modem times the fertilizer industry has become necessary to ensure plant growth. 

The history of the world fertilizer industry can be traced to the e2irliest agriculture when man began cultivation of plants to produce food. Prior to cultivation of plants and domestication of animals, man was a hunter and. gatherer of whatever sources of food he could find in his local environment. The early farmers soon learned that some soils were more productive than others they also learned that continuous cultivation of the same land resulted in reduced yields. Some learned that the addition of manures, composts, fish, ashes, and other substances would sometimes increase yields or apparently restore productivity to fields that were considered to be "worn out. Most of these soil amendments (the first fertilizers) were discovered by trial and error, and results were unpredictable. 

Nelson, L. B. 1990. History of the U.S. Fertilizer Industry, Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals, AL, U.S.A. 

The year 1994/95 provides a turning point in the history and future outlook of the fertilizer industry. Since 1988/89, global fertilizer use had been declining due to the drastic reduction in fertilizer use in the former centrally planned economies. The year 1994/95 is the first year after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1988 when global fertilizer use registered a 2% increase. During the 1994/ 95-2004/05 period, fertilizer demand is projected to increase by 2%/year - from 123 million nutrient tonnes in 1994/95 to 150 million nutrient tonnes in 2004/ 05. The demand for aD three nutrients is projected fo increase at 1.9% 2.1% per annum. Nitrogen demand is projected to increase from 74 miflion nutrient tonnes in 1994/95 to 89 million nutrient tonnes in 2004/05. Phosphate and potash demand is projected to increase... 

Lewis B. Nelson, History of the US fertilizer industry, Termessee Valley Authority, 1990, p. 227. 

Sulfur is used in a wide variety of industrial processes, however, its single most important use is as sulfuric acid in the production of phosphatic fertilizers. World demand for sulfur (in all forms) has traditionally grown at a fairly steady pace while world supply has been subjected to various sudden surges and shortfalls. The resulting interplay of supply/demand forces has led to an interesting price history for this commodity both worldwide and in North America. 

Most other simple compounds whose history has been examined have been those of obvious industrial interest. Thus, fluorinated compounds have been discussed, especially the now controversial chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).80 Another aliphatic chemical that has received exhaustive historical treatment, chiefly in the context of its industrial use, is lactic acid.81 The development of urea as a fertilizer has been studied,82 and a history provided of the synthesis of methanol.83... 

In this, the concluding chapter of our journey through the history of chemistry, we shall look at topics where chemical methods or ideas have proved useful, but not worry further about drawing a line around the science. Nor shall we worry about drawing a line between pure and applied science. Many industries employ chemists to do pure research, in the reasonable expectation that some of it will prove useful. Most chemists are employed in applied science that is the aspect of chemistry that has had the greatest effect on our environment and on us. In the past one hundred and fifty years, chemical synthesis has become ever more powerful, and it is fair to say that chemistry is the only science that now builds or creates much of what it goes on to study, from artificial elements to the latest plastics and the most powerful pharmaceutical chemicals, from fertilizers to microchips. Chemists have been enormously successful in their explorations, and the results of their work have transformed the world in which we live and work. 

This experiment must be done carefully because ammonium nitrate can explode. In fact, one of the greatest industrial disasters in U.S. history occurred in 1947 in Texas, when a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate for use as fertilizer exploded and killed nearly 600 people. 

The worst industrial disaster in U.S. history occurred in April 1947. A cargo ship named the Grandcamp had been loaded with fertilizer in Texas City, a Texas port city of 50 000 people. The fertilizer consisted of tons of a compound called ammonium nitrate. Soon after the last bags of fertilizer had been loaded, a small fire occurred, and smoke was noticed coming from the ship s cargo hold. About an hour later, the ship exploded. 

Salt. Because of its dietary importance and usefulness for food preservation, salt has been valued by humans throughout history. It is also widely used in the chemical industry as a water softener, for snow and ice removal, and by anyone who makes homemade ice cream. However, only 86 percent of the dissolved material in the ocean is table salt. The remainder includes bromine, which is used in medicines, chemistry, and antiknock gasoline magnesium, an important light-weight metal used in fireworks and flares because it is flammable potassium, which is used in fertilizers and calcium sulfate (gypsum), an important component of wallboard. 

The Spanish Civil War and World War II finally ruined the Spanish pyrites industry. Shipments had been blocked during these years, and alternatives had been found. After World War II, many new sulfuric acid plants were constructed in Europe to replace those that had been destroyed, and U.S. expansion was bolstered by economic growth, especially by demand for phosphate fertilizers. These new plants all used elemental sulfur (Contact process). While Spanish pyrites production returned to pre-war levels by 1950 (see Figure 2.5 for the early history of production), their market share had seriously eroded as sulfur demand, overall, had more than doubled. Pyrites mining as a source of sulfur continued in Spain until 2002. 

The synthesis of ammonia from its elements ranks as one of the most important discoveries in the history of the science of catalysis, not only because of its industrial application in which synthetic fertilizers have contributed enormously to the survival of mankind, but also from the viewpoint of fundamental science. Even today, some eighty years after the first demonstration of ammonia synthesis, many original scientific papers on the mechanism of the catalytic synthesis of ammonia are still published. Every time a new method, technique, or concept has appeared in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, it has been applied to this reaction. Specific examples of these applications over the years include the concepts of gas equilibrium, activated adsorption, structure sensitivitystoichiometric number and kinetic studies, " nonuniform surfaces, the measurements of surface area, surface composition and promoter distributions, and the use of isotopic and spectroscopic techniques. In particular, various surface science techniques have been applied successfully to this reaction system over well-defined single crystal surfaces in recent years. In this way the effect of promoters on the iron catalyst has been elucidated. Accordingly, the history of ammonia synthesis parallels not only that of industrial catalysis, but also the development of the science of catalysis. 

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