392 NOYES: NITROGEN PROBLEM IN RELATION TO WAR 



mental stage. There is no doubt that ammonia can be Hberated 

 almost quantitatively by proper steaming, and it is only a ques- 

 tion of time when it can be worked on a commercial basis. The 

 Government has no plant for the production of ammonia from 

 cyanide, but it has installed a small plant in Rhode Island for the 

 experimental production of ammonia, in cooperation with the 

 Nitrogen Products Company. 



One rather interesting question connected with the cyanide 

 process is "whether it will be best to convert the sodium formate, 

 which results from the first reaction of steam on sodium cyanide, 

 into formic acid in order to meet the serious shortage of acetic 

 acid for airplane dope and other purposes; or whether it will be 

 better to regenerate the sodium carbonate and use it over again 

 in the process. 



The Government, as I have said, is building a synthetic process 

 plant with a capacity of 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate a year 

 at Sheffield, Alabama (U. S. Nitrate Plant No. 1). It is also 

 building a cyanamide process plant with a capacity of 110,000 

 tons of ammonium nitrate at Muscle Shoals, Alabama (U. S. 

 Nitrate Plant No. 2). And a third plant has been authorized 

 for the production of another 1 10,000 tons of ammonium nitrate 

 per year. It is to be located in Ohio, half of it at Toledo and half' 

 at Elizabethtown. It is hoped that the synthetic process in the 

 first mentioned plant will be under way in the course of two or 

 three months and that it may then be assured of success, so that 

 the Government will be able to extend the synthetic plants. 

 It is possible, also, that the cyanide process and the arc process 

 'may be developed so that they can be utilized. 



Regarding the relative economies of the different processes, 

 it is difficult to say anything very definite. It is clear, however, 

 that the arc pTocess in its present inefficient form is excluded, 

 with power at the high cost that it has when it must be produced 

 from coal. The arc process might be operated in competition 

 with the other processes if power could be obtained at, say, SIO 

 or $12 per horsepower-year. The cyanamide process has the 

 advantage that it can be installed in many places in this country 

 and that it requires little power. The cyanide process has a 



