36 Industrial Inorganic Chemistry (INDL) Decision  Making Students can assume they are managers in a chemical manufacturing plant and discuss factors to be considered in their responsibilities to their employer and society. Factors include: alternative manufacturing processes (different chemical reactions with different starting materials to produce the same product—stoichiometry and energy consumption as well as economics are important issues here), source and consumption of raw materials (including possible exploitation of natural resources of underdeveloped nations), pollution and waste disposal and public health issues. Students should be guided to see that there is not a simple “right answer.” As with other decisions in our lives there are tradeoffs. As responsible citizens, we must make informed  decisions  concerning  complex  issues.  The  study  of  chemistry  helps  us prepare to make those decisions. Pollutionproblems,wastedisposalproblems,etc.,facingourcommunitiesandnations are linked to consumer use of chemical products (e.g., fertilizer run off, waste water treatment,  recycling  paper  and  metals)  as  well  as  to  commercial  production  of chemicals. It is important that students realize that chemical reactions can be used to change the form of matter but that it is impossible to make pollution or waste “disappear.” Factors that must be considered in addition to the feasibility of the process are the cost (economics), the environmental effect of the clean-up, public perception of the problem and the proposed solution. 1.    Although one of the most abundant metals, aluminum was considered a precious metal until the late 1800s. Many chemists tried to find a practical method for isolating aluminum from its ores, but it was 1886 before Charles Martin Hall, in Oberlin, Ohio, and Paul Héroult, in France, independently discovered  the  same  method  for  electrolytic  reduction  of  aluminum  from bauxite ore. Both of these men were only 22 years old when they made this discovery.  Hall  went  on  to  found  the  Aluminum  Corporation  of  America (ALCOA). In a day when aluminum beverage cans present a litter problem along our highways, it is difficult to believe that before the 1880s aluminum was more precious than gold! 2.    Fritz Haber first prepared ammonia from its elements in 1903, but years of experimentation were required before the synthesis became practical on an industrial scale. In 1908, he approached BASF regarding financial backing to develop his ammonia synthesis for industrial production. Carl Bosch, an engineer,  was  assigned  to  help  him  optimize  conditions  to  facilitate  the industrial synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. There were several problems faced in adapting Haber’s synthesis to an industrial scale. The osmium catalyst Haber used in the laboratory scale reaction was rare anddifficulttohandle.Aftermuchexperimentationanironcatalystcontaining oxides  of  aluminum,  potassium,  and  calcium  was  found  suitable.  The catalyst  is  now  generated  in  situ  by  the  hydrogen  reduction  of  Fe₃O₄ containing small amounts of the other oxides. Because high pressures were required, new equipment had to be developed. In 1913, the first plant opened. Essentially  the  same  process  is  used  today.  The  industrial  synthesis  of ammonia from the elements is frequently called the Haber process, but should  be  referred  to  as  the  Haber-Bosch  process.  Haber  developed  the reaction on a laboratory scale, but Bosch translated it into an industrial process. HISTORY: ON THE HUMAN SIDE