It’s always interesting to me how the significance of the Haber Bosch Process isn‘t more common knowledge.. even if our whole population depends on it! Great read, thank you very much!
Great article! It is interesting how late synthetic fertiliser N came to farming. An excellent summary for US agriculture is in ‘On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment’, Cunfer's 2005. 100 years seems a long time to younger people but it was only 2 decades before I was an evacuee on a Welsh Border farm.
Is this N fertiliser use, in part at least, another example of Jevons' Paradox? When other limiting factors were overcome, increased grain production allowed a world trend in per capita intensive meat production, for example. Global use in farming increased to 2010 but interestingly seems on a plateau since.
When I was writing an article in 2009 I got a kind personal answer to my enquiry. "According to the International Fertilizer Industry Association, nitrogen fertilizer production requires perhaps 5% of world natural gas; 1.2% of total energy". I guess the proportions might have changed with increased NG production.
Innovation in UK seems focussed on reducing N (and PK) fertiliser use. Co-incidentally, I live in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone where 'big farming' grain cultivation is constrained along a river, and inter alia is improving soil quality .
Fantastic article, the population detonator article from Vaclav Smil started a lot of things for me, worth a look https://www.nature.com/articles/22672 and the Lawes/Gilbert Rothamsted Long Term Experiments- I would be interested to see what you make of them- they realised the limits of mining Chilean nitrate and used this knowledge to sell fertilisers 180 years ago in the UK, Fidel Castro? It was also an important component of gunpowder that may not have got the scrutiny of fixed ammonia?
Thanks for another great article. As a process technologist with experience in the metallurgical field I am really impressed and glad to see how well researched you write about the technical, economical and historical aspects of the different topics/materials you select. This is something I do not often come across in the media. And above all it is a pleasure to read as well.
(And yes, I read your book and it’s great! And it has proven to be a well-received gift by several of my collegues and friends already ;))
So, I hope you’ll keep posting new articles and kind regards from The Netherlands.
It’s always interesting to me how the significance of the Haber Bosch Process isn‘t more common knowledge.. even if our whole population depends on it! Great read, thank you very much!
Great article! It is interesting how late synthetic fertiliser N came to farming. An excellent summary for US agriculture is in ‘On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment’, Cunfer's 2005. 100 years seems a long time to younger people but it was only 2 decades before I was an evacuee on a Welsh Border farm.
Is this N fertiliser use, in part at least, another example of Jevons' Paradox? When other limiting factors were overcome, increased grain production allowed a world trend in per capita intensive meat production, for example. Global use in farming increased to 2010 but interestingly seems on a plateau since.
When I was writing an article in 2009 I got a kind personal answer to my enquiry. "According to the International Fertilizer Industry Association, nitrogen fertilizer production requires perhaps 5% of world natural gas; 1.2% of total energy". I guess the proportions might have changed with increased NG production.
Innovation in UK seems focussed on reducing N (and PK) fertiliser use. Co-incidentally, I live in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone where 'big farming' grain cultivation is constrained along a river, and inter alia is improving soil quality .
btw. I got the book! Highly recommended!
Fantastic article, the population detonator article from Vaclav Smil started a lot of things for me, worth a look https://www.nature.com/articles/22672 and the Lawes/Gilbert Rothamsted Long Term Experiments- I would be interested to see what you make of them- they realised the limits of mining Chilean nitrate and used this knowledge to sell fertilisers 180 years ago in the UK, Fidel Castro? It was also an important component of gunpowder that may not have got the scrutiny of fixed ammonia?
Thanks for another great article. As a process technologist with experience in the metallurgical field I am really impressed and glad to see how well researched you write about the technical, economical and historical aspects of the different topics/materials you select. This is something I do not often come across in the media. And above all it is a pleasure to read as well.
(And yes, I read your book and it’s great! And it has proven to be a well-received gift by several of my collegues and friends already ;))
So, I hope you’ll keep posting new articles and kind regards from The Netherlands.
Great article, and love your book! It's pretty interesting how the mining dynamics work long after old practices "should have" become obsolete.