Abstract
Abstract Synthesis of ammonia on iron catalysts was discovered in 1905. Five years later, an iron catalyst containing two promoters, alumina and potassium oxide, was invented by a team of Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF). The first high-pressure ammonia plant went on stream in 1913. Thus it took only 8 years between discovery, invention, and innovation, a remarkable record considering the novelty at the time of high-pressure operation [1]. Also noteworthy is the fact that the original BASF iron catalyst is still in use today although additional promoters are added to the two original ones in various commercial formulations [2]. In fact, recent advances in ammonia manufacture have been largely of an engineering nature [3]. This is so in spite of a very large amount of fundamental and applied work designed to elucidate the mechanism of the reaction and the surface chemistry of commercial or alternative catalysts.
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