Carl Bosch

Bosch was a passionate collector of butterflies, beetles, minerals, and gems.

His collected meteorites and other mineral samples were loaned to Yale University. These were eventually purchased by the Smithsonian.

Carl Bosch was born on 27 August 1874 in Cologne, Germany. His father was a gas and plumbing supplier.

His uncle Robert Bosch was a famous engineer and inventor who invented the first commercially usable high-voltage spark plug.

After finishing high school, Bosch worked as a metal worker in a machine shop for a brief period.

From 1894 to 1896 he studied metallurgy and mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule (Technical University of Berlin) in Charlottenburg.

In 1896, he started studying chemistry at Leipzig University and graduated under Professor Wislicenus with a paper on organic chemistry in 1898.

In April 1899 he joined as an entry level chemist at BASF (Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik), Ludwigshafen, Rhine, the contemporary Germany's largest chemical and dye firm.

During his employment at the firm, he participated energetically in the development of synthetic indigo industry under the supervision of Dr. Rudolf Knietsch.

With metal cyanides and nitrides, he tried to solve the problem of the fixing of nitrogen and in 1907 started a pilot plant for the production of barium cyanide.

In 1908, Carl Bosch took up the large-scale project of developing the synthesis of ammonia on an industrial scale. By 1913, the project was successful and the first Haber-Bosch plant Stickstoffwerke (Nitrogen works) was opened in Oppau.

In 1917, another plant (Leunawerke) was set-up near Merseburg where he included the synthesis of methanol and the hydrogenation of oil to the production programme.

Carl Bosch’s major work was his adaption of the laboratory process for synthesizing ammonia for commercial production. He replaced osmium and uranium (Haber’s catalysts) with pure iron and constructed safe high-pressurized blast furnaces to create the synthesis. He devised the process in which hydrogen is manufactured on industrial scale by passing steam and water over a catalyst at high temperatures. The Haber-Bosch process became the most regularly used commercial process for nitrogen fixation and has increased agricultural production by supplying fertilizers all over the world. It has also played a role in the Green Revolution.