502 AisrisruAL. reports of department of agriculture. 



obtain information concerning all the factors which enter into the 

 cost of production. With its present facilities such items as labor 

 and repairs can not be determined with certainty. 



Much more rapid progress could be made if a large-scale plant 

 were available in connection with whose operation varying pressure 

 conditions could be studied. From the results of such a comparative 

 study it would be possible to select a set of conditions which are 

 best suited to the industrial conditions peculiar to the United States. 



A project involving the examination of 25 alloy steels reached 

 completion during the past year. In this test alloy steels suitable 

 for the high-pressure, high-temperature synthetic ammonia reaction 

 were exposed for about one year to a nitrogen-hydrogen-ammonia 

 mixture at 500° C and 100 atmospheres' pressure. As a result of 

 this test an alloy steel suitable for use at 100 and possibly up to 

 300 atmospheres can now be recommended. 



The investigation of methods for removing ammonia from the 

 high-pressure circulating system of the direct synthetic ammonia 

 process has been under investigation at this laboratory by the Bu- 

 reau of Soils. This investigation was primarily designed to meet the 

 particular needs of the Government plant at Sheffield. This project 

 was completed during the year, and the results will soon be available. 



Although the production of an efficient and dependable catalyzer 

 was the necessary first step and key to the whole problem of syn- 

 thetic ammonia, now that this has been accomplished the next and 

 greatest opportunity for reducing cost of ammonia production lies 

 in the manufacture of the pure hydrogen consumed in the process. 

 At present the cost of hydrogen and its purification before it can 

 be combined with nitrogen by the catalyzer represents about two- 

 thirds the cost of the ammonia produced. 



Three main roads for production of hydrogen are open to us: 

 Electrolysis of aqueous solutions, decomposition of hydrocarbona- 

 ceous materials, and the reduction of water vapor directly or in- 

 directly by carbon. 



The electrolysis of aqueous solutions is a simple and well-estab- 

 lished process already worked out nearly to its theoretically highest 

 possible efficiency and produces hydrogen needing little further 

 purification, but the consumption of electric energy is so great that 

 it can only be considered where either (a) the main purpose of the 

 electrolysis is to obtain some other valuable product, such as oxygen 

 or caustic soda, and the hydrogen is thus a by-product, or (h) where 

 electric power is exceedingly cheap. The total possibilities under 

 (a) are small compared with the nitrogen industry and are widely 

 scattered in small units. Those under (h) can only be considered 

 as transitory for each individual case, because wherever electric 

 power is developed in large quantity it immediately begins to build 

 up its own market and its value inevitably and automatically rises. 



Thus while the electrolytic process for hydrogen should be very 

 useful in the present introductory stages of the synthetic ammonia 

 process it must on the large scale eventually give place to purely 

 chemical methods of preparation, which, though only closely com- 

 peting with it at present, have intrinsically greater possibilities for 

 improvement and thus for ultimate reduction of cost. 



Through the chemical reactions of coal, coke, petroleum, or natural 

 gas, either by themselves or with water vapor, crude hydrogen may 



