Chemical fertilizer, referred to as chemical fertilizer for short, refers to fertilizer made by artificial chemical synthesis or mechanical processing, which can promote plant growth and increase yield.
According to ancient Greek legend, using animal manure as fertilizer was first discovered by Hercules. Hercules, the son of Zeus, the Lord of the gods, was a demigod and demigod hero. He created 65,438+02 miracles, one of which was cleaning the cowshed where King Augias of Elis raised 300 cows in one day. He diverted the Wusi River in Erfi, washed away the cow dung with the river water and deposited it on the nearby land, which made the crops harvest well. Of course, this is a myth, but it also shows that people at that time have realized the role of manure in increasing crop production. The ancient Greeks also found that the crops grown in the old battlefields were particularly lush, thus realizing that the corpses of people and animals were very effective fertilizers. The Bible also mentions the fertilization method of drenching animal blood on the ground.
For thousands of years, manure has been regarded as the main fertilizer in Europe and Asia. After entering the18th century, the world population grew rapidly. At the same time, the industrial revolution in Europe led to a large influx of people into cities, which aggravated the shortage of food supply and became a cause of social unrest. Chemists have been conducting scientific research on crop nutrition since the middle of this century. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, two popular theories of plant nutrition were "humus" and "vitality". The former thinks that the carbon element needed by plants is not from carbon dioxide in the air, but from humus; The latter thinks it is a pity that plants have their own unique vitality to make plant ash ingredients. 1840, the famous German chemist Justus von Liebig published the book "The Application of Chemistry in Agriculture and Physiology", and founded the theory of plant mineral nutrition and regression, holding that only minerals are the only nutrients of green plants, and organic matter can only have a nutritional effect on plants after being interpreted and released. Justus von Liebig also pointed out that the mineral nutrients absorbed by crops from the soil must be returned to the soil in full in the form of fertilizer, otherwise the soil will become more and more barren. Thus, the theory of humus and vitality was denied, which triggered the revolution of agricultural theory and provided a theoretical basis for the birth of chemical fertilizer.
Potash fertilizer-1845, Justus von Liebig began to engage in the research of chemical fertilizer, but the field experiments failed repeatedly. Until 1850 was approved by British agricultural chemist t? Inspired by Wei, the insoluble potassium salt used as fertilizer was changed into water-soluble potassium salt, which was successful. At that time, northern Germany was mostly sandy, and it was generally believed that crops could not be grown there at all. But Justus von Liebig spread potash fertilizer on the sand to grow crops. Many people think that "it is a lie to plant crops with salt in the sand" and regard Justus von Liebig as a madman. But a year later, the sand was covered with beautiful radishes, barley, rye and potatoes. In the eyes of farmers, Justus von Liebig changed from a madman to a fairy.
Phosphate fertilizer-Justus von Liebig was the inventor of potash fertilizer, but he was not the first inventor of chemical fertilizer. 1838, British squire L·B· Rouse discovered that phosphate rock can be produced by treating it with sulfuric acid, which can rapidly increase crop yield. Lao Siping obtained the patent of phosphate fertilizer in 1842, which is the first chemical fertilizer born in the world. In the same year, Rouse and another British scientist, J·H· Gilbert, established the famous Rosenster Experimental Station to conduct large-scale field experiments on soil fertility. Rouse and Guibert objected to Justus von Liebig's statement that animal and plant fertilizers were not needed. Through experiments, they proved that fertilizers made from decaying animals and plants are an important source of nitrogen in soil. They also smashed animal bones into bone powder and treated it with sulfuric acid to make calcium superphosphate, which has also proved to be an extremely important fertilizer.
1876, British employee S·G· Thomas invented the dephosphorization process of pig iron for steel works, which can make the phosphorus impurity in iron become compound phosphate and be removed. Two years later, Thomas discovered that this kind of phosphate steel slag is a good phosphate fertilizer after being crushed, which is called "Thomas phosphate fertilizer".
Nitrogen fertilizer-1850 years ago, Rouse and Gilbert invented the earliest nitrogen fertilizer by producing sulfuric acid from ammonia produced during gas extraction, but this chemical fertilizer has never been put into production and use. For a long time, the chemical yield of nitrogen fertilizer has lagged far behind that of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.
1898, German chemists Frank and Carlo developed iron carbonate, but they didn't notice the use of this new compound. It was not until 190 1 that Frank's son discovered it and made it into a new nitrogen fertilizer. 1906, Italy established a large-scale iron carbonate fertilizer plant for the first time. The earliest invented nitrogen fertilizer-ferric sulfate 19 19 was put into production.
1904- 1908, German physical chemist Haber successfully mixed the hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water with nitrogen in the atmosphere, and synthesized ammonia under the action of catalyst at high temperature and high pressure. 1909, Hubble and c? Bosch co-founded Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis method, which solved the technical problem of large-scale production of synthetic ammonia. 19 12 years, Harper and Bosch completed the production process of synthetic ammonia. 19 13, the world's first large-scale synthetic ammonia plant was put into operation in Germany. Hubble won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with 19 18 because of his great contribution to the invention and industrial production of synthetic ammonia and the urgent problem of nitrogen fertilizer in the world.
As early as 1828, the famous German chemist Willer synthesized urea for the first time in the world. However, people didn't realize the function of urea as an artificial nitrogen fertilizer at that time. The significance of synthesizing urea at that time was that Wheeler broke the boundary between organic compounds and inorganic compounds for the first time, and made organic compounds that were originally thought to be only produced in organisms by artificial methods for the first time. It was not until 1920 that urea was mass-produced in Germany. But at this time, urea is not used as a nitrogen fertilizer, but as a raw material for making explosives. Later, DuPont began to produce urea, which was put on the market as chemical fertilizer at 1935.
At present, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the most widely produced and used fertilizers in the world, among which nitrogen fertilizer is the most important. At the beginning of the 20th century, people found that 10 element is an essential nutrient element for ordinary plants, which is carbon, hydrogen and oxygen supplied by air and nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, magnesium, calcium and iron supplied by soil. In the 1940s, it was proved that manganese, boron, copper, zinc, silver and chlorine should be added in addition to 10 basic mineral nutrients. Compared with pre-10 elements, these six elements only need a small amount, so they are classified as trace elements. But they are also very important for the growth and yield of crops. In recent years, compound fertilizers containing trace elements have been gradually popularized. Since 1950s, the application of chemical fertilizers in large quantities has been an important measure to increase crop yield. According to the experience of western European countries, among various measures to increase production, the effect of chemical fertilizer on increasing production accounts for about 40-60%.