Odda Smelteverk

Odda A process for making a fertilizer by treating phosphate rock with nitric acid. Developed by Odda Smelteverk, Norway, in the early 1900s and still in use in 1988. Licensed by BASF and offered by Uhde. 

Odda Smelteverk never used the process itself, however, but licenced it to I.G. Farben, Staatsmijneh of the Netherlands, as well as to Norsk Hydro. Odda stayed in its oldest businesses, that of producing calcium carbide and cyanamide. Neither did Odda s owner, the Hafslund group, use the Odda process. In 1937 it sold Odda Smelteverk along with the Odda process to the British Oxygen Company. 

The aim of this paper is to understand the fate of the Odda process, and explain why it was invented at but never used by Odda Smelteverk and the Hafslund group. To achieve this, the paper is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the Hafslund group s strategic intent with respect to Odda Smelteverk and the Odda process. The second part looks into the Odda process itself, while the third part discusses why Hafslund did not exploit the Odda process. 

Anders Rokne, Odda Smelteverk A/S i femti dr 1924-1974, (Odda Odda Smelteverk, 1974). 

Just, op. cit., A. Hoy, A/S Meraker Smelteverk 1900-1950, (Trondheim Meraker Smelteverk, 1950) A. Andersen et al., Smeltedigelen - en industrisaga. Odda Smelteverk gjennom 80 dr, (Odda Nord 4 og Odda Smelteverk, 1980). 

The invention of the Odda process at Odda Smelteverk was thus no coincidence. It was the company s strategy to develop this large producer of the nitrogen fertiliser cyanamide also as a producer of new fertilisers. Odda produced 57,000 tons of cyanamide in 1928, mostly for export, and it had been experimenting with new processes for several years, and filing relevant patents, when it discovered an economical way to produce phosphoric acid. ... 

The phosphoric acid invention was also an outcome of the Hafslund Group s own strategy. In 1922 - before starting Odda Smelteverk - Hafslund considered the possibility that the Odda factory might produce new fertilisers that contained both nitrogen and phosphate, based on French processes. Hafslund was thus part of a... 

It all benefitted Norsk Hydro, however. While Odda was completely honest about its technical knowledge, Norsk Hydro tried to circumvent the Odda process patent. After negotiations fell through in 1933, three leaders of Odda summed up their bitter experiences Norsk Hydro had not made any serious offer, but seemed to have wanted to postpone the matter and to get hold of all possible information, information that is now used to circumvent the Odda process. " " Even though Norsk Hydro clearly exploited the economic difficulties of Odda at the time, it is possible to understand why, since Odda s real plans had been to collaborate with American Cyanamid Company, in all probability as a competitor to Norsk Hydro. In any case, Norsk Hydro was in a very vulnerable position itself, also hit by the crisis it was only in 1929 that it completed restructuring to produce nitrogen fertiliser by the Haber-Bosch process. In the end, Odda did very little. Odda Smelteverk was sold to the British Oxygen Company in late 1937, and the Odda process was licenced to I.G. Farben in 1938, to Dutch Staats Mijnen in 1939, and eventually to Norsk Hydro after the war. 

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