Global Synthetic Ammonia Industry

Anthony S. Travis is with the Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research into the history of technology mainly concerns the chemical industry in the 19th and 20th centuries. Publications include The Rainbow Makers: The Origins of the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry in Western Europe (1993), and Nitrogen Capture: The Growth of an International Industry (1900-1940) (2018). Travis is recipient of four awards, including from the history of chemistry division of the American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

• Agriculture: Fertilizers for Feeding Growing Populations.- The Great Nitrogen Challenge: Synthetic Ammonia.- Luigi Casale and the Foundation of Ammonia Casale SA.- Ammonia Casale in Nobeoka, Japan, and Toulouse, France.- Reorganisation, and Research and Development at Ammonia Casale. The Final Years of Luigi Casale’s Remarkable Life Story.- Casale’s Process Described.- Pure Gases, Compressors, Catalysts, and Special Steels.- American Synthetic Ammonia, 1920-1940.- The United States Emerges as the Global Leader.- Methanol and Urea, New Feedstocks, Steam Reforming, Fertilizers, Postwar Recovery, Regional Expansion.- The Green Revolution, 1,000-tpd Single-Train Ammonia Synthesis.- The Energy Crises, The People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and the 1970s.- Process Innovations in the 1970s and 1980s. International Growth.- Revamping, Catalyst Studies, and Green Hydrogen.