Researchers moving closer to a soluble solution to Haber-Bocsh process
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Haber-Bosch process, known throughout the world as the means by which ammonia is made for use in fertilizer, has been under study for at least as long as the agricultural revolution has been underway. While the current system clearly works, it’s been used to feed the billions of people on the planet for the past several decades; it’s also costly due to the high temperature and pressure involved. If a way could be found to produce the same result at non-elevated temperatures, the production costs would come down dramatically resulting in reduced food prices the world over. No small thing considering we just welcomed the seven billionth person just last week. The good news is that some progress is being made. Patrick Holland and his colleagues at the University of Rochester, and at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, describe in their paper published in Science, how...