The problem was that there was only so much guano, and it was on a trend to run out in a few decades – which would lead to mass starvation and population decline. Intellectuals and world leaders were worried. Making ammonia (NH3) synthetically by combining nitrogen gas (N2) and hydrogen (H2) was the obvious solution, but the N≡N bond is a triple bond and really strong, it’s quite hard to break, and despite research efforts, no one had come close. Thankfully, prof. Fritz Haber’s work led to a discovery, and Carl Bosch of BASF drove an incredible chemical engineering program to refine, scale-up, and commercialize the synthetic ammonia process now known as Haber-Bosch.[2],[3],[4]
The other main component in fertilizers is phosphorus, which is found in phosphate rock and mined. Phosphate was abundant, which was good because there is no substitute (our DNA needs it) and, being a basic element, it can’t be produced synthetically. But we find ourselves today with those phosphate resources dwindling in quality and accessibility, increasing in cost, and the chorus of those calling for accelerating phosphorus recovery is growing louder…