The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1916-11-16
NITROGEN FROM
AIR TOO COSTLY
Or. H. o. Porter Asserts United
States Can Produce enough
From Coal.
CASE NOT like GERMANY'S
Chemist Believes There Will Be No
Dearth of Product in This Country
in Case of War-Ammonia
Production.

pared by Well-knOWn chemists and
read at the sessions of the American
Chemical society during it's annual
meeting for 1916, held during the sec7
ond annual chemical exposition at
Grand Central palace, was one by DR.,
Horace 0. Porter, an industrial chem
list OF Pittsburgh, in which he predict
ed that nitrogen would be extracted
from the atmosphere in this country,
Doctor Porter, however, told of other
sources from which nitrogen could be
produced in the United States at the
present time, more cheaply than from
the atmosphere, in such large quantities
that there would be no danger of a
dearth of nitrogen here in the event
of war, such as was threatened in Ger
many when her sources of outside sup
ply were cut off in the present war.
"The fiXation of nitrogen from the
atmosphere for application in agricul+
ture and the arts is an industrial de-
velOpment now thoroughly well est
tablished in several foreign countries:
In Better Shape Than Germany.
whether in America, in the emer-
gency of a great war and the shutting
off of our foreign supply of nitrate, we
should be obliged to meet the situation
in the same way as Germany has done
is very doubtful. Atmospheric nitro
gen fixatiOn will without question even-
tually be established in this country,
This will be when it's costs, including
capital charges, shall have become low
enough to admit of profitable expan-
sion of the industry. 1t will be well
come as an additional and unlimited
source of fixed nitrogen Independent
Of the uncertainties of foreign i'm
pOrtatiOn.
Sat present, however, owing to con-
ditionS affecting the cost of power in
this country, fixed nitrogen can COM
mercially be had more cheaply from
coal. If the supply, therefore, is ade-
quate from the latter source for an
emergency of war, there is no need of
government subsidy for atmospheric
| nitrogen fXation. AS to prices Of
fixed nitrogen to the farmer in times
of peace, the producers prices of coal
by-prOduct nitrogen are on par with
those in foreign countries and with
those of other forms of fertilizer nj
trogen in this or other countries.
''The available supply of fixed nitro
gen from coal is adequate to this cOun-
try's military needs in any reasonable
6YJ0 10 ic
being produced in rapidly increasing
quantities. The crux of Americas sit
uatiOn as compared to Germany'S is
that we are not called upon to reserve
our entire by-prOduct ammonia sup
ply for agriculture; ample food crops
for domestic consumption in time of
war are assured us without the use of
fertilizer, while Germany, on the 9th
er hand, is absolutely dependent on
such use, especially of heterogeneous fer
tilizer, and has had even to increase
her use Of ammonium Sulphate in this
way since the beginning of the war.
Government Plant Insufficient.
'"The by-product coking and coal gas
today a capacity of making 10000 tons
of ammonia per year. Within eighteen
months they will increase this capacity
to 10000 tons. From 80 per cent to
40 per cent of this capacity is for am
monia in the form of liquor, and, with
slight adjustment of those plants max
ing sulphate, this capacity for liquor
can be increased to SO per cent or
more, that is, to 10000 tons of am
monia. The recent appropriation by
congress of $2O,OOO,OOO for a govern
ment nitrate plant will, if devoted to
a ter-power-cyanamide process in
stallation, yield not over 10000 tons
of ammonia per year, and the probable
needs of the government in the event
of war have been estimated at $780,
| 900 tons of nitric acid, corresponding
to about 10000 tons of ammonia.
Germany makes all of her coke by
the by-prOduct process and therefore
is unable to increase her ammonia out
put from coke ovens without increase
in coke production; America, how
ever, by turning still more from bee
hive to by-product coking, can more
| than double her ammonia production
without an increase of coke. Further
more, the production and use of coke
in America have every prospect of ma
terial increase, giving still larger am
monia production.
"The nitrogen reserves in the min
able coal of the United States (nOt in
Guiding peat) amount to 30,0OO,OOO,-
| 900 tons. The amount recoverable by
present industrial methods of carbon
| ization in ovens or Classifying in by
product producers is at least 100000
| tons. From the bituminOus coal mined
| in the United States in 1915, 100000
tons of nitrogen were thus recover
able. if all such coal had been cooked
or gasified.
1.-THE apparatus and processes for
recovery of fixed nitrogen from coal
are not complicated, expensive, or i'm
practical. Publication Of the am
monia to any degree is practicable and
not costly"
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from the family buggy, so that it col