My Italy

Saltpeter ore contains potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate, which are raw materials for making gunpowder and are also an important source of agricultural fertilizers. For this reason, the importance of saltpeter mines has emerged, and the largest saltpeter mine in the world currently comes from the Pampas Desert in Chile.

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

Since then, the three countries have taken different paths, and Chile has also become one of the three strongest countries in South America. One can imagine how helpful the saltpeter mine was to Chile. Because of this, Chile also became one of the important partners of the British Empire, and the sales of saltpeter mines were dominated by the British.

Other countries were dissatisfied with the British Empire's monopoly on the sale of saltpeter mines. Everyone is not a fool, how can we not know its intention. Attempts to monopolize the raw materials for gunpowder resulted in countries having to take their opinions into account when preparing armaments.

For this reason, on the one hand, various countries put pressure on the British, trying to get a share of the pie, and on the other hand, they also tried to find ways to bypass the purchase of saltpeter mines.

Among them, ammonia occupies an absolutely important position.

Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. It is a colorless gas at room temperature, has a strong pungent smell, and is easily 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 naturally many people studying the industrial extraction of ammonia.

In 1795, someone tried to synthesize ammonia at normal pressure, and later someone tried it at 50 atmospheres, but they all failed.

In the second half of the 19th century, great progress in physical chemistry made people realize that the reaction of synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen is reversible. Increasing pressure will push the reaction in the direction of producing ammonia: increasing temperature will move the reaction in the opposite direction. However, if the temperature is too low, the reaction speed will be too small; the catalyst will have an important impact on the reaction.

This actually provides theoretical guidance for ammonia synthesis experiments. At that time, the authority of physical chemistry, Nernst of Germany, clearly pointed out that nitrogen and hydrogen can synthesize ammonia under high pressure conditions, and provided some experimental data.

The French chemist Le Chatelier was the first to attempt a high-pressure synthesis of ammonia, but he gave up the dangerous experiment because oxygen was mixed into the nitrogen-hydrogen mixture, causing an explosion.

Although he gave up, someone still decided to continue the work. Fritz Haber was the one who decided to conduct experiments on ammonia synthesis.

His experiments were somewhat different. He never blindly followed authority, but relied on experiments to test. After some precise experiments, Haber finally confirmed that Nernst's calculations were wrong.

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

First, water vapor is blown over the hot coke to obtain a mixture of almost equal volumes of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The carbon monoxide further reacts with water vapor under the action of a catalyst to obtain carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Then the mixed gas is dissolved in water under a certain pressure, and the carbon dioxide is absorbed, thus producing purer hydrogen.

Similarly, water vapor is mixed with an appropriate amount of air and passed through red-hot carbon. The oxygen and carbon in the air generate carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which are absorbed and removed, thereby obtaining the required nitrogen.

The mixed gas of nitrogen and hydrogen synthesizes ammonia under the conditions of high temperature and high pressure and under the action of catalyst.

But what kind of high temperature and pressure conditions are optimal?

What kind of catalyst is best?

This requires great efforts to explore.

After continuous experiments and calculations, Hubble finally achieved inspiring results. This means that under the conditions of a high temperature of 600°C, a pressure of 200 atmospheres and osmium as a catalyst, ammonia synthesis with a yield of about 8% can be obtained.

A conversion rate of 8% is not high, and will certainly affect the economic benefits of production. Hafeng knew that the ammonia synthesis reaction could not achieve a conversion rate as high as that of sulfuric acid production. In sulfuric acid production, the conversion rate of sulfur dioxide oxidation reaction was almost close to 100%.

what to do? Haber believes that this process is feasible if the reaction gas can be circulated under high pressure and the ammonia generated by the reaction is continuously separated from this cycle. So he successfully designed a recycling process for raw gas, which was the Haber process 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. Carlo only needs to remember the ammonia or the name of the person, and someone will help him find it. First, check the current people in Germany who are conducting ammonia synthesis research, find familiar names or check what they are doing, and then let people find them and say that they want to fund them, and then wait for the results.

Basically no one will refuse his goodwill, because research requires a large amount of money, and few people have sufficient budgets. Anyone who can have a wealthy and powerful thigh is willing to accept it.

In addition, Harper himself also had a millionaire dream and wanted to make some money through inventions. Therefore, the friendship from Italy was accepted immediately.

Therefore, after the industrialization research on synthetic ammonia was completed, Carlo was very reasonable to get the news as soon as possible.

And Carlo, who got the news, of course knew its function.

Let’s put aside what benefits mankind. At present, the cost of synthesizing ammonia is not low. Even if you use it to make ammonia fertilizer, farmers cannot afford it. At present, the biggest role of synthetic ammonia is to replace the role of saltpeter in gunpowder.

Now that research on the industrialization of synthetic ammonia has been completed, Italy certainly cannot lag behind. So Carlo called the captain of the guard. "McCllen, let the Savoy Fund invest in the construction of an ammonia plant."

"As you command, Your Majesty."

Of course, McClun, as the captain of the bodyguard, would only obey the king's orders. This was based on his experience as the captain of the bodyguard for many years. It was absolutely correct to read less, speak less, and listen more.

"In addition, let Haber come to guide the construction of the factory."

Facing the king's words, McClun spoke. "Your Majesty, this may be a bit difficult."

"What's wrong, isn't Haber unwilling to come?"

Carlo was a little surprised by the captain of the guard's words. He had read information about Haber. This great chemist was a bit greedy for money. He would pay a large sum of money for such a job as guiding the construction of a factory.

"Your Majesty, Mr. Haber is now focused on selling ammonia synthesis technology to the German government, and may not be willing to leave to Italy for guidance."

Although McClun said it tactfully, Carlo understood immediately. Harper believes that the technology he is researching is very important and valuable, so he is not willing to have any surprises before maximizing the benefits.

Carlo also understood the other party's thoughts very well, but he felt a little unhappy inside. Could it be that the Kingdom of Italy could still make things difficult for him.

But if it rains, my mother wants to get married, so let her be. If you don't want to come, just don't do it. Italy can just build its own ammonia plant.

In fact, when Italy obtained the ammonia synthesis technology, Germany also learned about the success of Haber's research, and also learned that Italy had purchased the technology.

At this time, the promotion of synthetic ammonia took a different path. At the request of the German government, BASF assisted Haber in the construction of the first synthetic ammonia plant, three years earlier than in history.

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