My views on “ The Alchemy of Air”
As part of my orientation in a new organization I joined recently, I was given this book- “The Alchemy of Air”. I was a bit surprised as I haven’t received any book in past organizations I had worked with and I wasn’t sure what this book has to do with CF Industries. It intrigued me however, I always enjoy reading different genres and non-fiction is anytime favorite.
I usually start the book with a synopsis because it gives me a preview of the book. I found the synopsis on the back of the book very interesting as it talks about two crazy scientists and their endeavor to make food out of the air. They both invented the famous Haber-Bosh process. On the other side, the author has also mentioned explosives and atomic bombs that killed millions during World War using the same process. An amazing contrast! This certainly inspired me to move on with my decision to read this book.
I would like to share my views on this book. Perhaps you will find it fascinating to read this book if you have been putting it aside as I did initially. I have never read anything like this which contains, history, science, and wars altogether.
Fertilizer was accidentally discovered in the 19th century and helped farmers feed the overcrowded population. If we all ate vegetarian diets and farmed every acre of arable land using all the latest techniques of the late 1800s, the earth could support a population of around a billion people. Today, we’re above 7 billion and still counting. Now you can imagine, if fertilizers were not found, millions of people would have been starving by now. We are blessed and thankful to this discovery that we not struggling with a lack of food. Instead of facing worldwide famine, we are dealing with the global epidemic of obesity. Unfortunately, this finding of natural fertilizers led to the endless quest of making money by humans and stripping the earth’s natural supply. Then, there was a shortage of natural fertilizer.
As it says, when there is a problem, there is an invention. Hager describes in detail how the famous Haber-Bosh system was developed to convert air into food. You will find detailed information about the scientific processes involved in making ammonia from the air. Several catalysts used, chemical reactions, multiple attempts, and failures of scientists are discussed in the book. Fritz Haber, the great scientist who didn’t give up on trying and finally succeeded in converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia. This was the birth of the Haber-Bosch process. Haber was ebullient and developed the small model of this process, but the challenge was to convert this model into a commercial business to produce tons of Ammonia. In the 1950s, Carl Bosch, a reclusive and alcoholic inventor, translated this model into large machinery and produced synthetic Ammonia in large factories. He faced various challenges and failed many times but finally, he achieved it. There were two things in common among both scientists: crazy passion and a never-giving-up attitude. That’s why this famous process was coined — The Haber-Bosch process.
As with almost all technological advancements, however, there is a downside. The synthetic Haber -Bosch nitrogen, which now makes up about half the nitrogen in every human body, also fueled the weapons of the world wars and created a nitrogen-rich environment that is having a huge impact on Earth, from lush vegetative growth to dead zones in the oceans. The same Haber-Bosch process and factories were misused by Hitler to produce explosives and bombs. This book contains all the gory details of the World wars and the millions that died from these bombs.
Natural fixed-nitrogen fertilizer is quite limited in supply, creating a ceiling on the number of food humans could grow. Haber and Bosch, who both died broken and disillusioned, found a way to transform a portion of the vast reservoir of atmospheric nitrogen into usable nitrogen-based fertilizer, thereby lifting the food ceiling to heights.
I would surely recommend this book as it would help to gain the perspective on Fertilizer Industries, their operations, product portfolio, Values, and how you are associated with it. You will understand the relevance of “Fertilizers”, which may sound simple today, however, If you want to understand the Science and History behind it, this is a must-read.
