Carl Bosch
Carl Bosch was a notable German chemist and engineer, best known for his pivotal contributions to the development of synthetic ammonia production. Born in Cologne, Germany, he demonstrated an early interest in science and engineering, eventually earning a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Leipzig. Bosch began his industrial career at BASF, where he improved chemical processes and later focused on scaling up the ammonia synthesis developed by Fritz Haber. This work culminated in the establishment of large ammonia plants, which became crucial for both agricultural fertilizer and military explosives during World War I.
In addition to his achievements in ammonia synthesis, Bosch played a key role in advancing the coal hydrogenation process, which led to the production of synthetic gasoline. He was appointed chairman of I.G. Farben, a major chemical cartel, and actively engaged in international negotiations for commercial agreements. Despite the rising tide of Nazi Germany, Bosch opposed the regime's anti-Semitism and worked to assist those persecuted. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931, sharing it with Friedrich Bergius for their developments in high-pressure chemical methods. Bosch's work has had lasting impacts on agriculture and chemical manufacturing, while also raising ethical questions regarding the use of his discoveries in warfare. He passed away in 1940, leaving behind a complex legacy intertwined with both scientific advancement and the tumultuous history of his time.
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Carl Bosch
German chemist and engineer
- Born: August 27, 1874
- Birthplace: Cologne, Germany
- Died: April 26, 1940
- Place of death: Heidelberg, Germany
Bosch led the group of scientists and engineers who took the ammonia synthesis invented by Fritz Haber (1868-1934) and Robert Le Rossignol (1884-1976) and developed it from laboratory-scale to industrial-scale production during the years 1909-1913. New techniques for high-pressure chemical reactions were invented, and the ammonia production revolutionized agriculture.
Primary fields: Agriculture; chemistry
Primary inventions: Haber process; gasoline synthesis
Early Life
Carl Bosch (BOSH) was born in Cologne, Germany, the eldest son of Paula and Karl Bosch. Young Carl’s father had come to Cologne from the south of Germany near Ulm and operated a successful plumbing business. Carl’s uncle Robert (his father’s brother) established a company (still in existence) that manufactures automobile parts and tools. As a youth, Carl developed a wide interest in science, collecting mineral specimens as well as plants and insects. He worked in his father’s shop, developing skill with tools, and did chemical experiments in a small home lab. Upon graduation from the Oberrealschule (German equivalent of high school), Bosch became an apprentice in a foundry called Marienhütte in the town of Kotzenau. Here he became familiar with metallurgy and metalworking equipment.
Entering the Technische Hochschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg, he studied chemistry and engineering for two years, after which he moved to the University of Leipzig, where he was awarded the Ph.D. degree, summa cum laude, in 1898, and stayed on for a time as assistant to Johannes Wislicenus (1835-1902), who had directed his doctoral research.
Bosch’s doctoral thesis was in the field of organic chemistry and concerned a study of a reaction of acetonedicarboxylic acid and diethyl ester. In 1899, Bosch went to work for the chemical firm Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (BASF). His initial assignment was in connection with the production of synthetic indigo, under the direction of Rudolf Knietsch (1854-1906).
Life’s Work
Bosch began his industrial career in Ludwigshafen, where he improved the process for making phthalic anhydride (a chemical precursor for the alkyd resins used in paint). Later, he reinvestigated some work done by Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) on catalysis of the ammonia equilibrium. In this investigation, he found that Ostwald’s results were in error.
Continuing research on nitrogen fixation, Bosch studied the formation of cyanides and cyanamides from reactions of carbides with nitrogen. Calcium cyanamide is able to react with steam to form ammonia, and this process was used for manufacturing ammonia.
Beginning in 1909, Bosch worked on scaling up Fritz Haber’s ammonia synthesis. The result was that after a remarkably short time of four years, BASF had developed and brought onstream a synthetic ammonia plant at Oppau (near Ludwigshafen) in 1913. In 1917, a second, larger plant was opened at Leuna (near Leipzig). These plants supplemented the ammonia produced from the cyanamide process and helped to reduce Germany’s dependence on imported nitrates from South America. After the start of World War I, the ammonia became a vital raw material for the production of nitric acid, and hence the explosives like TNT (trinitrotoluene) and cordite, for which nitric acid is needed.
Bosch was promoted to managing director at BASF in 1919, and when Interessen Gemeinschaft Farben (I. G. Farben) was founded in 1925, he became a director there. I. G. Farben was organized as a chemical cartel to market and control prices of chemical products, mainly dyes. (The German word färben means “dye.”) At the end of World War I, the victorious Allies, particularly France, were concerned that a resurgent Germany would become warlike again. The Versailles treaty imposed monetary reparations on Germany, and attempts were made to obtain the technical details of Bosch’s ammonia and nitric-acid processes and to accomplish the destruction of the Oppau plant. Bosch was a delegate to the treaty negotiations and was able to head off the French plans to destroy the Oppau works. Ironically, the plant vanished in a gigantic accidental explosion in 1921 that destroyed the town and resulted in six hundred fatalities. Bosch organized the rebuilding of the facilities, which was accomplished in three months with the aid of ten thousand workers.
In addition to ammonia and nitric acid, Bosch was involved in taking the coal hydrogenation process of Friedrich Bergius (1884-1949) from pilot plant to large-scale production. In 1925, Bergius sold the rights of the method to BASF. The process at that stage had a number of shortcomings that were corrected by Bosch and his associates. Bergius had accomplished coal hydrogenation in one step, combining crushed coal with heavy oil or pitch and subjecting the mass to high-pressure hydrogen in a long horizontal reaction vessel. After the reaction, products were separated from residual ash and fractionated. Bergius had not had the facilities to explore possible catalysts for the reaction, nor had he conducted the reaction in two stages, which the I. G. Farben chemists now found beneficial, separating the hydrogenation and cracking aspects and conducting the latter in the vapor phase. These improvements enabled I. G. Farben to manufacture synthetic gasoline at its plant in Leuna in ever-increasing amounts. As Bosch moved into administration, he had less engineering work to do but was active in negotiations with Bergius and in persuading the other directors to persist with the very expensive coal hydrogenation program. In 1935, Bosch became chairman of the board of directors at I. G. Farben. In this position, he traveled to foreign countries, including the United States, to negotiate commercial agreements for oil and coal hydrogenation.
Beginning in 1933, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to political power in Germany began to have an impact on all aspects of life. Bosch opposed the anti-Semitism of the regime and tried to help some of the non-Aryans who had lost their positions and wanted to leave Germany. For example, he tried to obtain an exit visa for the physicistLise Meitner (1878-1968), who wanted to immigrate to Denmark. Such an undertaking on his part was not without personal risk, because of the extreme suspicion of the Gestapo.
In 1937, Bosch succeeded Max Planck as the president of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute, Germany’s most important scientific society, and left I. G. Farben. Over the next three years, culminating in his death in 1940, Bosch became increasingly pessimistic about the future of Germany and increasingly a user of drugs and alcohol.
Impact
In 1931, Bosch and Bergius shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their achievements in developing high-pressure methods. The synthetic ammonia industry pioneered by Bosch and Haber made nitrogen fertilizer available in hitherto unimaginable quantities and made possible the harvests of wheat and other grains to feed the world.
Within a few years, the Haber-Bosch process was implemented around the world, and today ammonia is produced in eighty countries in amounts that approach 140 million metric tons annually. High-pressure techniques, as perfected by Bosch and others, are used routinely in the modern chemical process industries. On a more somber note, it is likely that Germany in 1914-1918 could not have waged war as long as it did without the explosives made possible by the ammonia and nitric-acid syntheses, and conventional modern warfare is equally dependent on the manufacture of these chemicals.
Bibliography
Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben. New York: Free Press, 1978. Carl Bosch was chief executive of I. G. Farben, the giant chemical monopoly. Many photographs, and an account of Bosch’s activities at the Versailles peace conference. Tells of the war crime trials of I. G. Farben executives in 1947-1948 after Bosch’s death.
Bosch, Carl. “The Development of the Chemical High Pressure Method During the Establishment of the New Ammonia Industry.” In Nobel Lectures, Chemistry, 1922-1941. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966. Bosch’s Nobel Prize lecture describing the work that led to the first large-scale ammonia synthesis. Many diagrams of equipment.
Cornwell, John. Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil’s Pact. New York: Viking Press, 2003. Wide-ranging study of science, medicine, and engineering under the Nazis.
Hayes, Peter. Industry and Ideology: I. G. Farben in the Nazi Era. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. A study of the corporate culture at I. G. Farben. According to Hayes, the executives were gradually seduced into cooperating with Nazi ideology by being allowed to make large profits. Several members of the management were imprisoned at the end of World War II for condoning slave labor.
Leigh, G. J. The World’s Greatest Fix: A History of Nitrogen and Agriculture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Good diagrams of Bosch’s reactors, compared with modern ones. Discussion of natural fixation of nitrogen and the environmental impact of nitrogen fertilizers. Well illustrated.
Smil, Vaclav. Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch and the Transformation of World Food Production. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001. A history of nitrogen in agriculture. Describes the growth and importance of the synthetic ammonia industry during the twentieth century and its impact on world hunger and the environment.
Travis, Tony. “The Haber-Bosch Process: Exemplar of Twentieth Century Chemical Industry.” Chemistry and Industry 15 (August, 1993): 581-585. Traces the various attempts to synthesize ammonia and gives an account of the life and work of Haber, as well as some of the contributions of Bosch.