Haber process

The Haber process, or Haber–Bosch process, is the main industrial method of making ammonia, combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen over an iron catalyst; the German chemist Fritz Haber demonstrated it in the laboratory in 1909, and Carl Bosch scaled it up for BASF. The first industrial plant opened at Oppau in 1913, and during the First World War Germany used it to make nitric acid for explosives. Most of its ammonia goes into fertiliser, enabling the world's population to grow from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion by 2018.