The First Ammonia Plant at Oppau

The Bosch-directed, indeed Bosch-driven, process of converting a bench-top process into a large-scale commercial reality proceeded at an impressive pace. The first ammonia prodnced at the experimental site (Lu 398) in the company s main Ludwig-shafen compound began to flow on May 18 and 19, 1910, just ten months after Haber s Karlsruhe demonstration. Two months later, on July 19, there was enough ammonia to fill a 5 kg container.  

After the first converter with Bosch s soft iron insert was put into experimental operation in March 1911 its ammonia output kept rising steadily, and the daily rate of 100 kg NH3 was surpassed in July 1911. Total NH3 output during 1911 reached lit (averaging 30 kg/day) by the end of the year internally heated ammonia converters had a length of 4 m and a diameter of 15 cm. In February 1912 a new 8 m tall converter was introduced, and two months later its daily output topped 1,000 kg NH3. Another production milestone came in July 23, 1913, when the aggregate synthesis at Lu 35 reached 1 million kg of NH3.  

Planning for a plant with a daily capacity of 10 t NH3/day began in April 1911 when the pilot plant was not even producing 0.11 NH3/day. By the time the decision to build the first commercial plant was made in November 1911, its capacity had increased to 301 NH3/day about 70% of this output was to be converted to ammonium sulfate to be used directly as fertihzer. As there was insufficient space next to the main Ludwigshafen plant, a new site was chosen between the small village of Oppau and the Rhine River, 3 km north of BASF s main plant. But while the preparations for the first plant s construction were proceeding as fast as possible, BASF was fighting in courts. 

Because of the unprecedented volumes of pressurized gases, which required the construction of lengthy pipelines carried on elevated structures, the plant acquired a look unlike that of any other previous chemical enterprise (fig. 5.9). Bosch was 

Ammonia plant in Oppau in a painting by Otto Bollhagen (1920). Courtesy of BASF Unternehmensarchiv, Ludwigshafen, Germany. 

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