FIXED ISriTEOGEN RESEARCH LABORATORY. 503 



be prepared at a small fraction of its cost by the electrolytic method, 

 but at present the cost of purification absorbs most of the saving over 

 the electrolytic process. However, it is just in these purification 

 processes that there appears to be the greatest chance for improve- 

 ments, and thus for reducing the cost of the ultimate product, fertil- 

 izers. It is on this account that it is proposed in the coming year to 

 center so large a proportion of the laboratory's efforts upon this 

 problem of pure hydrogen production. 



One of the methods already investigated was the cracking or 

 decomposing of hydrocarbons, especially natural gas. Where large 

 quantities of natural gas are going to waste, conversion of the gas 

 into ammonia may be considered a conservation of our resources 

 quite worth while, besides offering the possibility of cheap ammonia. 

 The chief difficulty in this method lies not so much in the chemical 

 and engineering aspect of the problem as in the uncertainty of the 

 gas supply. If a plant could be assured of a continuous supply of 

 natural gas for a number of years this might be a promising method 

 for obtaining hydrogen and in turn ammonia. 



The. gases from the by-product coke ovens of this country contain 

 many times the amount of free hydrogen required to fix all the 

 nitrogen now consumed in fertilizers, but here again there is need 

 for careful study of methods for s;^ paration and purification. This 

 is another problem to which the laboratory is devoting its attention. 



When hydrogen is made through the reduction of water vapor by 

 coke in a gas producer, as was planned at Sheffield, the principal 

 chemical problems are concerned with the conversion of carbon mon- 

 oxide and steam to hydrogen and proper purification of the gas mix- 

 ture before it can be used in the synthesis. These problems have 

 been under study for some time by the laboratoiy, and already 

 definite results have been obtained which will be of material assist- 

 ance in operating such a plant as that at Sheffield. 



During the past year a catalyst for converting carbon monoxide 

 and steam into hydrogen was studied, which on a laboratory scale 

 shows considerable promise. The efficiency of the catalyst for con- 

 verting carbon monoxide and steam into hydrogen determines in 

 part the nature of the final purification which can be employed. The 

 removal of uncombined carbon monoxide by means of cuprous am- 

 monium carbonate or formate solutions has been studied and the 

 results have been published. The possibility of converting carbon 

 monoxide into methane has also been investigated and catalysts suit- 

 able for this reaction have been studied. 



ARC PROCESS. 



Concerning the electric-arc process for nitrogen fixation, this was 

 the first to be commercially developed, due to its simplicity, but its 

 excessive power consumption doomed it from the start in competition 

 with the cyanamide and still more with the direct synthetic ammonia 

 process. Another almost equally serious drawback to its peace-time 

 competition is that it leads directly to nitric acid instead of ammonia, 

 and this is less easily and cheaply converted into stable, dry fertilizer 

 ingredients suited to our present methods of application. Tlie possi- 

 ble importance of the arc process for military emergencies should, 

 however, not be overlooked, as in this case a large amount of the 



78007— AGE 1923 33 



