The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-20


 large chemical companies within the last few days point the way to the reduction of living costs through new methods of utilizing waste products, according to a bulletin of the American Chemical Society.
 Che Company which produces am monia by the fxation of nitrogen from the air will exchange it's unused sub stances for materials rejected in the manufacture of soda.
 By the Haber process, a German method, the patents on which were taken over by the Chemical Founda- ton, Inc, ammonia can be obtained on a large scale from atmospheric nitrogen. The chief item of expense in this process is the cost of obtain ing and purifying the hydrogen need ed to bring about the necessary reac- tions, as a large bulk of material must be handled to get it. Thus eleven tons of carbonic acid gas or carbon dioxide, such as is used in the charg- ing of soda water fountains, are ob- tained for every ton of pure hydro gen. This carbon dioxide was per 1nitted to escape into the air.
 On the other hand, the manufact- urers of soda and it's compounds need carbon dioxide in vast quantities. They have been burning up hundr eds of carloads of coal and limestone to get that which the corporations mak- ing ammonia by the fxation of miro gen were sending adrift upon the winds. Under the new agreements, the soda manufacturers take over the carbon dioxide from the ammonia plants and pass it through heavy b,'ine. This brine, as all of us re- member from high school chemistry, is a solution of common salt or so- diurn chloride in water. Salt is com posed of sodium and chlorine. The carDonic acid gas, bubbling through the brine, unites with the sodium and forms a bicarbonate, or the baking soda which is used by the housewife in so many domestic chemical reac- ticns. There is also formed ammon- ium chloride, which can be employed as fertilizer.
 In the manufacture of soda much lime or calcium oxide and chlorine were required. There has always been a great waste of the ca1~11~o chloride which is left as residue. This sludge as it is called, has been puzzling the chemical economists for years. It is an inert substance and not of such value as is chlorinated lime, incorrect 7y designated chloride of lime, which is a disnfectant and bleach. S1udge
 
 amount of it, however, when dried, is useful as a dressing for roads, where it keeps down the dust, as it quickly s1hsoI<bs water.
 Public spirited chemical manufac- turers, desiring in every way to CO., - operate with the conservation comrnis- sions of the various States have kept 1t out of streams wherever possible, as it tends to injure the fish and to T ,1@ Iarr, ly- They have been spiling it up in great masses, thus losing the use of valu- able real estate. Under the new ar engagement sludge will not be pro- dueed. Instead plants engaged in nitrogen and ammonia operations will be getting ammonia to the soil as a fertilizer. for the ammonium chloride obtained undn' the new meth ods is a valuable and highly concen- trated nitrogen produce. It is con- sidered as good as the ammonium sulphate obtained by the treating o1 ammonia with sulphurlc acid.
 The team work arranged for the two processes is bound to result in lower production costs. This means thai cheap and abundant fertilizer, SC necessary to the increase of the crops will be at hand. There will be saved also hundreds of thousands of tons o. sulphuric acid, hundreds of thousand! Cf tons of lime and many a trainloaC of coke.
 Such methods are the beginning o. an era into which has come the say. ing grace of the great war. The cut ting off of the United States from it: chemical trade with Europe made i necessary for manufacturers to seel new sources of chemicals and the! found them often in the dust heaps Under the new regime substance: once considered useless may be turned