Sawaal-Jawaab: The quests and conquests for Nitrogen capture

At the turn of the 19^th century, a definitive understanding of the importance of nitrogen rich fertilizers for agriculture started to emerge, leading to a hugely increased demand. Owing to the increasing population and the limited supply of natural sources of nitrogen rich minerals, a massive effort began worldwide to develop industrial scale methods for nitrogen capture, ultimately leading to the well known Haber-Bosch method for Ammonia synthesis. As of today, it is estimated that about 50% of the nitrogen atoms present in our bodies are derived from the Haber-Bosch process and about 2% of the world’s energy supply gets used for this!