Carl Bosch

Carl Bosch (German pronunciation: [kaʁl ˈbɔʃ] ⓘ ; 27

August 1874 – 26 April 1940) was a German chemist Carl Bosch

and engineer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.[2] 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.[3]

He also developed the Haber–Bosch 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.[4] In addition, he co-developed the
so-called Bosch-Meiser process for the industrial
production of urea.

Bosch c. 1929
Biography
Born 27 August 1874
Cologne, German Empire

Early years Died 26 April 1940 (aged 65)

Heidelberg, Germany
Carl Bosch was born in Cologne to a successful gas
and plumbing supplier.[5] His father was Carl Friedrich Education Technische Universität Berlin
Alexander Bosch (1843–1904) and his uncle was Leipzig University
Robert Bosch, who pioneered the development of the Known for Bosch reaction
spark plug and founded the multinational company Bosch–Meiser urea process
Bosch. Carl, trying to decide between a career in Haber–Bosch process
metallurgy or chemistry, studied at the Königlich Awards Liebig Medal (1919)
Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now
Werner von Siemens Ring (1924)
Technische Universität Berlin) and the University of
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1931)
Leipzig from 1892 to 1898.
Wilhelm Exner Medal (1932)
Goethe Prize (1939)
Career
Scientific career
Carl Bosch attended the University of Leipzig, and this
Fields Chemistry
is where he studied under Johannes Wislicenus,[6] and
he obtained his doctorate in 1898 for research in Institutions BASF, IG Farben
organic chemistry. After he left in 1899 he took an Doctoral Johannes Wislicenus[1]
entry-level job at BASF, then Germany's largest advisor
chemical and dye firm. From 1909 until 1913 he Signature
 transformed
Fritz Haber's
tabletop
demonstration
of a method to
fix nitrogen
using high-
pressure
Share of the IG Farbenindustrie AG, chemistry
issued September 1926; signed by through the
Carl Bosch as chairman Haber–Bosch
process to
produce
synthetic nitrate, a process that has countless
industrial applications for making a near-infinite
variety of industrial compounds, consumer goods, and
commercial products. His primary contribution was to
expand the scale of the process, enabling the Painting by Hermann Groeber: Der Aufsichtsrat
industrial production of vast quantities of synthetic der 1925 gegründeten I.G. Farben AG, Carl
Bosch and Carl Duisberg (in front sitting),
nitrate. To do this, he had to construct a plant and
Edmund ter Meer (third person from right with
equipment that would function effectively under high newspaper)
gas pressures and high temperatures. Bosch was also
responsible for finding a more practical catalyst than
the scarce osmium and expensive uranium being used by Haber.[7]

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.[5] This work
won him the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1931.[2]

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. From 1935, Bosch was chairman of the board of directors.

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.[8] After the Nazi seizure of power, Bosch was one of the industrialists
selected for membership in Hans Frank's Academy for German Law in October 1933, where he served on
the General Economic Council (Generalrat der Wirtschaft). In December 1933, Bosch received a contract
to expand the production of synthetic oil, a development which was essential to Adolf Hitler's future war
plans.[9]

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.[5] 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 Bosch's grave in Heidelberg
roughly one-third of its population.[10] On average, one-half of the 49.396155°N 8.692567°E
nitrogen in a human body comes from synthetically fixed sources,
the product of a Haber–Bosch plant.[11] 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.[12][13] He was an amateur astronomer
with a well-equipped private observatory. The asteroid 7414 Bosch was named in his honour.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17]

Awards and honours

1931: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1919: Liebig Medal of German Chemists Association
1924: Werner von Siemens Ring of Stiftung Werner-von-Siemens-Ring foundation
1932: Wilhelm Exner Medal of Austrian Trade Association
 Bunsen Medal of the German Bunsen Society
Golden Grashof Memorial medal of the VDI
Carl Lueg Memorial Medal

See also
German inventors and discoverers
Fritz Haber

References
1. Entry at Academic Tree (https://academictree.org/chemistry/tree.php?pid=51928)
2. "Carl Bosch – Biographical" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1931/bo
sch-bio.html). Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
3. Hager, Thomas (2006). The Demon under the Microscope. New York: Harmony Books.
p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4000-8214-8.
4. Flavell-While, Claudia. "Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch – Feed the World" (https://www.thechem
icalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/).
www.thechemicalengineer.com. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
5. Hager, Thomas (2008). The alchemy of air. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-
35178-4. OCLC 191318130 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/191318130).
6. "Carl Bosch | German chemist" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Bosch).
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
7. Bosch, Carl. "The development of the chemical high pressure method during the
establishment of the new ammonia industry" (https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/b
osch-lecture.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 17 November 2019.
8. "Carl Bosch (German chemist)" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/74581/Carl-Bos
ch). Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 August 2023. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
9. Klee, Ernst (2007). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach
1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-
8.
10. Smil, Vaclav (2001). Enriching the earth. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
OCLC 61678151 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/61678151).
11. "Fixing the Nitrogen Fix, Can Chemistry Save The World?, Discovery – BBC World Service"
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dzl8p). BBC. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
12. Wilson, Wendell E. (2013). "Carl Bosch (1874–1940)" (https://web.archive.org/web/2006092
8083822/http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=205). Biographical Archive. The
Mineralogical Record. Archived from the original (http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=20
5) on 28 September 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
13. Servos, Kurt (1954). "Meteorites in the Carl Bosch Collection of Minerals Yale University".
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 5 (6): 299–300. Bibcode:1954GeCoA...5..299S (https://
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1954GeCoA...5..299S). doi:10.1016/0016-7037(54)90037-X (htt
ps://doi.org/10.1016%2F0016-7037%2854%2990037-X).(registration required)
14. Lehmann, Gerhard; Kandler, Jens; Knöfel, André (27 October 2004). "Amateurastronomen
am Sternenhimmel" (http://www.kleinplanetenseite.de/Versch/kphimmel.htm) (in German).
Amateure am Sternenhimmel. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
15. "Haber and Bosch named top chemical engineers" (https://web.archive.org/web/201310050
12711/http://www.icheme.org/media_centre/news/2011/haber%20and%20bosch%20name
d%20top%20chemical%20engineers.aspx). IChemE.org. Institution of Chemical Engineers.
21 February 2011. Archived from the original (http://www.icheme.org/media_centre/news/20
11/haber%20and%20bosch%20named%20top%20chemical%20engineers.aspx) on 5
October 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
16. "Chemical engineers who changed the world" (https://web.archive.org/web/2011032014211
2/http://www.tcetoday.com/chemical%20engineers%20who%20changed%20the%20world.a
spx). tce today. Institution of Chemical Engineers. March 2010. 2010 Entries: Feed the
world. Archived from the original (http://www.tcetoday.com/chemical%20engineers%20wh
o%20changed%20the%20world.aspx) on 20 March 2011.
17. "Famous Scientists – Carl Bosch" (https://archive.today/20130629114601/http://humantouch
ofchemistry.com/carl-bosch.htm). The Human Touch of Chemistry. Tata Chemicals. Archived
from the original (http://humantouchofchemistry.com/carl-bosch.htm) on 29 June 2013.
Retrieved 15 December 2013.

Further reading
Vaclav Smil (2004). Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of
World Food Production (https://books.google.com/books?id=G9FljcEASycC). MIT Press.
ISBN 978-0-262-69313-4.
Thomas Hager, The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific
Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler (2008) ISBN 978-0-307-35178-4.
Peter Hayes (1987). "Carl Bosch and Carl Krauch: Chemistry and the Political Economy of
Germany, 1925–1945". The Journal of Economic History. 47 (2): 353–363.
doi:10.1017/S0022050700048117 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0022050700048117).
JSTOR 2122234 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2122234). S2CID 96617284 (https://api.sema
nticscholar.org/CorpusID:96617284).
K. Holdermann (1949). "Carl Bosch und die Naturwissenschaft". Naturwissenschaften. 36
(6): 161–165. Bibcode:1949NW.....36..161H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1949NW.....
36..161H). doi:10.1007/BF00626575 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF00626575).
S2CID 28091913 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:28091913).
Carl Krauch (1940). "Carl Bosch zum Gedächtnis". Angewandte Chemie. 53 (27–28): 285–
288. Bibcode:1940AngCh..53..285K (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1940AngCh..53..285
K). doi:10.1002/ange.19400532702 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fange.19400532702).
"Carl Bosch" (https://archive.today/20130629114601/http://humantouchofchemistry.com/carl
-bosch.htm). Famous Scientists. Human Touch of Chemistry. Archived from the original (htt
p://humantouchofchemistry.com/carl-bosch.htm) on 29 June 2013.
"Carl Bosch" (https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1931/bosch-bio.h
tml). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1931. Nobelprize.org.
"Carl Bosch (German chemist)" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/74581/Carl-Bos
ch). Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 August 2023.

External links
recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high
pressure methods (https://web.archive.org/web/20060630035704/http://uk.geocities.com/her
touyt/cgi-bin/bosch-speech.html) at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 June 2006).
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch (https://web.archive.org/web/20140408215259/http://www.educa
dores.diaadia.pr.gov.br/arquivos/File/tvmultimidia/imagens/3quimica/9haber-bosch.jpg)
 BASF Where Carl Worked (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/BASF_We
rk_Ludwigshafen_1881.JPG)
BASF's Production (https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YMFreDbGCus/UXE1E_uz5BI/AAA
AAAAABG0/F2ExTcQ7McY/s654/catalytic_converter.gif)
Newspaper clippings about Carl Bosch (http://purl.org/pressemappe20/folder/pe/002223) in
the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
Carl Bosch (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/189) on Nobelprize.org

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carl_Bosch&oldid=1242508531"