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Carl Bosch (; 27 August 1874 – 26 April 1940) was a German chemist and engineer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest chemical company. (2026). 9781400082148, Harmony Books. ISBN 9781400082148
He also developed the Haber process, important for the large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives. It is estimated that one-third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber–Bosch process, and that this supports nearly half of the world's population. In addition, he co-developed the so-called Bosch-Meiser process for the industrial production of urea.
There were many more obstacles as well, such as designing large compressors and safe high-pressure furnaces. A means was needed to provide pure hydrogen gas in quantity as the feedstock. Also, cheap and safe means had to be developed to clean and process the product ammonia. The first full-scale Haber–Bosch plant was erected in Oppau, Germany, now part of Ludwigshafen. With the process complete he was able to synthesize large amounts of ammonia, which was available for the industrial and agricultural fields. In fact, this production has increased the agricultural yields throughout the world. This work won him the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1931.
After World War I Bosch extended high-pressure techniques to the production of synthetic fuel via the Bergius process and methanol. In 1925 Bosch helped found IG Farben, and was the first head of the company.
He received the Siemens-Ring in 1924 for his contributions to applied research and his support of basic research. In 1931 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Friedrich Bergius for the introduction of high pressure chemistry. Today the Haber–Bosch process produces 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer every year.
In mid-1932, Bosch instructed two IG Farben executives to meet Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stop the Nazi Party's political attacks on the company's synthetic fuel project. In December 1933, the Nazi government granted IG Farben a price and purchase guarantee to expand the production of synthetic oil at Leuna works, in a context of increasing state oversight of the company's operations.
Advocating open international cooperation and limited state control over science and industry, Bosch opposed the Nazi regime's autarkic and repressive policies from 1933 onward, which led to his gradual marginalization within IG Farben. From 1935, Bosch was chairman of the board of directors, a role that has become largely ceremonial as he was increasingly sidelined from operational decision-making under the Nazism.
Carl Bosch along with Fritz Haber were voted the world's most influential chemical engineers of all time by members of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
The Haber–Bosch process, quite possibly the best-known chemical process in the world, which captures nitrogen from the air and converts it to ammonia, has its hand in the process of the Green Revolution that has been feeding the increasing population of the world.
Bosch also won numerous awards including an honorary doctorate from Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe (1918), the Liebig Memorial Medal of the Association of German Chemists along with the Bunsen Medal of the German Bunsen Society, the Siemens Ring, and the Golden Grashof Memorial medal of the VDI. In 1931 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the contribution to the invention of chemical high pressure methods. He also received the Exner medal from the Austrian Trade Association and the Carl Lueg Memorial Medal. Bosch also enjoyed his membership of various German and foreign scientific academics, and his chairmanship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society of which he became the President in 1937.
Personal life
Bosch married Else Schilbach in 1902. Carl and Else had a son and a daughter together. A critic of many Nazi policies, including anti-Semitism, Bosch was gradually relieved of his high positions, and fell into depression and alcoholism. He died in Heidelberg.
Legacy
The Haber–Bosch Process today consumes more than one percent of humanity's energy production and is responsible for feeding roughly one-third of its population. On average, one-half of the nitrogen in a human body comes from synthetically fixed sources, the product of a Haber–Bosch plant. Bosch was an ardent collector of insects, minerals, and gems. His collected meteorites and other mineral samples were loaned to Yale University, and eventually purchased by the Smithsonian. He was an amateur astronomer with a well-equipped private observatory. The asteroid 7414 Bosch was named in his honour.
Awards and honours
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Categories: 1874 Births, 1940 Deaths, Basf People, Engineers From Cologne, German Chemical Engineers, German Industrialists, German Nobel Laureates, Ig Farben People, Leipzig University Alumni, Members Of The Academy For German Law, Members Of The Prussian Academy Of Sciences, Nobel Laureates In Chemistry, People From The Rhine Province, Scientists From Cologne, Technische Universität Berlin Alumni, Werner Von Siemens Ring Laureates, German Organic Chemists
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