The Rise of Australia

After watching the tank performance, Arthur met with Fritz Haber from Germany a few days later. New 𝘹.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Speaking of Haber's name, if you are not very concerned about the chemical industry, you may feel unfamiliar.

But if you mention ammonia synthesis technology, its popularity will surely be much higher.

Haber was born into a Jewish family in Brislau, Silesia, Germany, and was a famous German chemist.

Because he produced ammonia last year, he won the Leah Chemistry Prize, and received a personal invitation from Arthur to serve at the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research in Australasia.

The predecessor of the Royal Physical and Chemical Research Society was the Royal Physical Research Society, and its chief president was Einstein.

The reason why the Physical Chemistry Research Association was established was naturally to attract top physical chemistry talents from Europe and even around the world.

So far, Arthur has invested more than 10 million Australian dollars in the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research, and his achievements are indeed quite impressive.

Many famous physicists and chemists, including Einstein and Hubble, were personally invited by Arthur to serve at the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research.

They only need to change their nationality to Australasian to receive an annual salary of at least AUD 5,000, plus research funding of at least AUD 50,000 per person per year.

In addition to these, all state-owned research laboratories and materials in Australasia, as well as research rooms and some equipment within the university, are all available to members of the Royal Physical and Chemical Research Society free of charge.

To put it simply, as long as you become a member of the Royal Society for Physical and Chemistry Research, the research funds will be provided by the research society, and you will be paid a high salary, and even the food, clothing, housing and transportation of your family will be arranged.

This is good news for some scientists who love scientific research but are short of money. It is precisely because of these conditions that the Royal Australian Institute of Physical and Chemical Research has attracted more than 20 members, all of which are Famous physical chemistry researchers from various European and American countries are famous experts with certain scientific research achievements and recognized abilities.

Hubble's reputation in later generations was actually not very good, because Hubble served as the director of the chemical arsenal during World War I, responsible for the development and production of chlorine, mustard gas and other poisonous gases, and used them in the war, causing nearly a million deaths human casualties.

This inhumane act was condemned by scientists from the United States, Britain, France and many other countries, and caused Hubble's reputation to plummet in the scientific research community.

But these do not hinder Haber's talents in chemistry. The ammonia synthesis technology he developed is also very important to the national level. New 𝗰𝗼𝗺

Of course, when it comes to ammonia synthesis technology, we have to mention the importance of ammonia.

Ammonia is a colorless gas with a strong pungent odor. Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that is easily soluble in water and is an important raw material for making nitric acid fertilizers and explosives.

The reason why synthetic ammonia technology is so important is that saltpeter, an important mineral for making gunpowder and agricultural fertilizers, must be mentioned.

Because it can make gunpowder and is also an important source of agricultural fertilizers, saltpeter mines are of unparalleled importance and are in the hands of very few countries.

At present, the world's largest saltpeter mine comes from the Pampas Desert in Chile. Even in later generations, it will also be the world's largest saltpeter mining area and saltpeter exporter.

War broke out between several countries around this saltpeter mine and Chile, but in the end it was successfully obtained by Chile.

With the support of the British, Chile successfully became the top three in South America, but the price was that the saltpeter mine was firmly occupied by the British, and the mining and sales of the saltpeter mine were basically decided by the British.

The British Empire's monopoly on saltpeter mines caused dissatisfaction in many other countries. There is no way. Saltpeter mines are very important for both military industry and agriculture. Even if they cannot get a share of the saltpeter mines occupied by the British, they must find alternatives to the saltpeter mines to solve the raw materials for making gunpowder and fertilizers.

Among the many alternatives to saltpeter ore, ammonia is definitely one of the most important.

As early as 17, ammonia synthesis was carried out under normal atmospheric pressure, but it ultimately failed. Immediately afterwards, someone tried to test it in multiple different atmospheric pressure environments, but the result was still a failure.

This status quo has made some progress until 1. Great progress in physics and chemistry has made people realize that the reaction of synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen is reversible. Increasing pressure will push the reaction in the direction of producing ammonia: increasing the temperature will move the reaction in the opposite direction, but if the temperature is too low, it will Make the reaction speed too small; the catalyst will have an important impact on the reaction. This actually provides theoretical guidance for ammonia synthesis experiments.

At that time, the authority of physical chemistry, Nernst of Germany, clearly pointed out that nitrogen and hydrogen can synthesize ammonia under high pressure conditions, and provided some experimental data.

French chemist Le Chatery was the first to attempt to conduct a high-pressure synthesis of ammonia experiment, but he gave up this dangerous experiment because oxygen was mixed into the nitrogen-hydrogen mixture, causing an explosion. Haber, who had a good foundation in physical and chemical research, was determined to overcome this daunting problem.

Haber first conducted a series of experiments to explore the optimal physical and chemical conditions for ammonia synthesis.

Some of the data he obtained in the experiment were different from Nernst's. He did not blindly follow authority, but relied on experiments to test, and finally confirmed that Nernst's calculations were wrong. new

With the assistance of a student from the United Kingdom, Rosenau, Haber successfully designed a set of equipment suitable for high-pressure experiments and a process for synthesizing ammonia. This process is: blowing water vapor above the hot coke can obtain almost A mixture of equal volumes of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

The carbon monoxide further reacts with water vapor under the action of a catalyst to obtain carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Then the mixed gas is dissolved in water under a certain pressure, and the carbon dioxide is absorbed, thus producing purer hydrogen.

Similarly, water vapor is mixed with an appropriate amount of air and passed through red-hot carbon. The oxygen and carbon in the air generate carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which are absorbed and removed, thereby obtaining the required nitrogen.

The mixed gas of nitrogen and hydrogen synthesizes ammonia under the conditions of high temperature and high pressure and under the action of catalyst.

But what kind of high temperature and high pressure conditions are the best? What kind of catalyst is the best? This must be explored with great efforts.

With perseverance, after continuous experiments and calculations, Haber finally achieved the results of one person's heart.

This means that under the conditions of atmospheric pressure and osmium as the catalyst, ammonia synthesis yield of about 8% can be obtained. A conversion rate of 8% is not high, and will certainly affect the economic benefits of production.

Haber knew that the ammonia synthesis reaction could not achieve as high a conversion rate as sulfuric acid production, where the conversion rate of the sulfur dioxide oxidation reaction was almost 100%. What to do? Haber believes that this process is feasible if the reaction gas can be circulated under high pressure and the ammonia generated by the reaction is continuously separated from this cycle. So he successfully designed the recycling process of raw gas. This is the Haber process for the synthesis of ammonia.

After the birth of ammonia synthesis technology, Haber's name became famous throughout the European chemical community.

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After successfully obtaining the patent for the Haber process for synthesizing ammonia, Haber also received the news that he had won the Victoria Prize for Chemistry that year.

In order to take his process out of the laboratory and formally carry out industrial production, Haber made a prompt decision and decided to accept the invitation from Arthur to work at the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research in Australasia.

Of course, what really attracted Haber was that in addition to a series of conditions of the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research, Arthur also made an additional promise that as long as Haber was willing to hand over his process to Australasia, Australasia was willing to do whatever it took. Efforts will be made to quickly realize industrial production of Haber's industrial processes, and a synthetic ammonia plant will be built and officially put into production within five years.

At that time, the profits will be divided with Haber, and Haber will be invited to serve as the chief vice president of the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research.

The reason why Arthur was confident that he could build a formal ammonia plant was because in the original history, Haber's idea of ​​ammonia was a synthetic ammonia plant with a daily output of 30 tons. At that time, a synthetic ammonia plant had been built and put into production.

The time for this was only about three years, and historically Haber only handed it over to Germany's largest chemical company.

Arthur didn't believe it. With all the efforts of the whole country, how far behind could he lag behind a chemical company?

The day after Haber's arrival, Arthur announced Haber's appointment as vice president at the Royal Society for Physical and Chemistry Research. Witnessed by Haber and the Kent steward, he announced that the royal consortium would invest one million Australian dollars. Construction of an ammonia plant using the Haber process.

Harper invested in his own ammonia synthesis process, accounting for 40% of the shares, and the royal consortium controlled by Arthur invested 1 million Australian dollars, accounting for 60% of the shares.

The site of the synthetic ammonia factory is located at the Leonora Industrial Base. The construction of the factory is not difficult, but the specific equipment and methods for industrialized production of synthetic ammonia technology have to wait for Haber and a series of members of the Royal Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. Research was conducted.

Arthur made a promise in this regard. As long as the Royal Institute of Physical and Chemical Research can solve the production of synthetic ammonia, the royal family will donate one million Australian dollars in research funds to the Royal Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, and give all members an additional 20,000 Australian dollars each. reward.

A research fund of one million Australian dollars was shared equally among more than 20 experts from the Royal Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, each of whom could also receive tens of thousands of Australian dollars.

In addition, as long as they can solve the production technology of synthetic ammonia, all members will each receive an additional reward of 20,000 Australian dollars, which is enough for their salary for four years, and no one will refuse it.

You know, the salary of members of the Royal Australasian Institute of Physical and Chemical Research is definitely quite high, and it is basically at the upper-middle level in Europe.

In addition, Arthur is generous and rewards anyone with significant research results. Therefore, the actual income of these members is even higher than that of most experts in Europe. In addition, free trial laboratories and annual fixed research funds, This is why experts are willing to change their nationality to come to Australasia.

After handing over the problem of industrial production of ammonia to the Royal Society for Physical and Chemistry and asking Haber to pay attention to the construction of ammonia plants, Arthur felt relieved.

In fact, in addition to ammonia synthesis, Australasia currently also attaches great importance to chemical industry.

Several new chemical plants stationed in the Leonora Industrial Base have basically enjoyed Australasia's strong support for the chemical industry.

In addition to additional tax incentives, the royal consortium and the government also provide double loans to these chemical industries to ensure that the chemical industry has sufficient funds for development.

At present, the tax paid by general industry is about 11%, while the tax paid by the chemical industry is only 8%.

Moreover, these chemical plants can occasionally receive free help from members of the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research. Of course, if funds are sufficient, these members can also be directly hired as consultants.

In addition to these, the Australasian government currently provides greater support to chemical engineering majors in various universities.

Not only has the number of students enrolled in the chemical engineering major increased, but also more tuition and other miscellaneous fees have been reduced for college students applying for the chemical engineering major, and there are more scholarships and benefits, in order to cultivate more talents for the chemical industry. Talent.

At present, the most powerful ones in the chemical industry should be Australasian National University and the University of Auckland.

The chemical engineering major of the Australasian National University currently enrolls up to 400 students each year, and the chemical engineering major of the University of Auckland enrolls 200 students each year.

Coupled with the large and small chemical engineering majors in other universities, the chemical industry in Australasia can also train at least 700 college students every year, which can be regarded as making up for the shortage of talents in the chemical industry.

Of course, as far as top talents in chemistry are concerned, Australasia currently has no way of cultivating them on its own and can only rely on hiring from Europe and the United States.

Of course, most of the time they are hired from Europe. After all, education in Europe has become very popular and all kinds of talents are abundant, so it is easier to recruit them.

Although countries like the United States have a very developed economy, education is not as popular as in Europe.

Even the reason why the United States rose in later generations was because it attracted a large number of European talents in World War I and World War II.

Now if we want to attract talents from the United States, first of all, these talents are valued very much by the US government, and secondly, the talents of these talents may not be comparable to those in Europe.

With the current good relationship between Australasia and Germany, it is relatively easy for Australasia to invite some chemical experts from Germany.

So far, Australasia has hired more than 40 well-known experts from Europe. Among them, the most talented ones have basically entered the Royal Society for Physical and Chemical Research.

The remaining relatively well-known talents have basically entered the chemical engineering majors of major universities under Arthur's arrangement, cultivating more mainstay talents in chemical engineering in Australasia.

Although the chemical industry is beneficial and harmful to human society, in the end, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, and it is also very important for the development of the country.

Under various measures to develop the chemical industry in Australasia, major chemical industry factories have sprung up like bamboo shoots, and chemical industry talents are gradually accumulating.

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