The Haber process now produces 450 million tonnes (440,000,000 long tons; 500,000,000 short tons) of

nitrogen fertilizer per year, mostly in the form of anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, and urea. 3
5% of the world's natural gas production is consumed in the Haber process (~12% of the world's annual
energy supply). In combination with pesticides, these fertilizers have quadrupled the productivity of
agricultural land:
With average crop yields remaining at the 1900 level the crop harvest in the year 2000 would have
required nearly four times more land and the cultivated area would have claimed nearly half of all ice-
free continents, rather than under 15% of the total land area that is required today. Due to its dramatic
impact on the human ability to grow food, the Haber process served as the "detonator of the population
explosion", enabling the global population to increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to today's 7 billion. Nearly
80% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber-Bosch process. Since nitrogen
use efficiency is typically less than 50%, our heavy use of industrial nitrogen fixation is severely
disruptive to our biological habitat.

Making ammonia using the Haber process requires a lot of energy, which usually involves burning fossil
fuels. This releases carbon dioxide which causes global warming. Oxides of nitrogen are also emitted
during the process.

The widespread use of fertilisers can cause a type of pollution called eutrophication.

This is when fertilisers are washed off fields and into rivers and lakes, causing algae to grow. The algae
die off when they have exhausted the nutrients. The algae are then decomposed by aerobic bacteria,
which use up all the oxygen - causing the aquatic ecosystem to collapse.

Impacts of the Haber Process on Farming, Gardening and the World

More Food - More People

It wasn't until the 1950's, after the first and second world wars, that the Haber process really started to
affect farming. Ammonia stocks, diverted in wartime to make bombs and bullets, started being used to
produce the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers used everywhere today.

Increased food production has allowed the human population to swell to its current almost 7 billion size.
Estimates are that a third of the earth's human population is fed thanks to the Haber process. Many
people believe that to stop or limit the use of synthetic fertilizers would lead to mass starvation.

Balance in the Nitrogen Cycle

Our impact on the nitrogen cycle is actually bigger than our effect on the carbon cycle. We convert more
N2 gas into fixed reactive forms than all the Earth's processes combined. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer
production, vehicle exhaust emissions and even growing nitrogen fixing crops all fix nitrogen. We add an
estimated 140 million tons of fixed nitrogen of which roughly 80-100 million tons is from the Haber
process chemical plants.

If you study scientific material on the nitrogen cycle you can't help but notice that molecules of nitrogen
that get fixed can also get unfixed. Nitrogen fixing bacteria are balanced with denitrifying counterparts
in roughly equal proportions. Over time there might be a slow increase in fixed nitrogen but in the
natural world the shift is very slow.
The Haber process contributions of reactive nitrogen are not offset by denitrification.

A group of scientists led by Johan Rockstrom explored the questions of planetary boundaries in an
article recently published by Nature. The usual climate change issue was of course reported. What might
surprise you though is that while we have only just slipped past the edge of the CO2 boundary, the
nitrogen cycle disruption was deemed to be about three times over the safe limit. This graphic illustrates
the extent to which we may be overstepping the nitrogen boundary.

These scientists suggest we reduce our fixed nitrogen additions to about 35 million tons or roughly a
third of what we are currently slinging onto fields and belching out of cars and factories.

Haber Process is an Energy Glutton

Given that the Haber process requires temperatures of 400 - 550C and pressures of 200 - 300
atmospheres it's not surprising that it uses a lot of energy. Manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers uses
about 5% of the world's natural gas production, equivalent to 1-2% of the world's annual energy
consumption.

While natural gas is among the more plentiful fossil fuels, this level of use is not sustainable in the long
term. As well, as oil reserves worldwide dwindle, prices will rise putting fertilizers some farmers have
come to depend on out of reach for the poor.

Negative Effects on Soil and Soil Community

A balanced diet for soil organisms in simple terms is about 20 parts carbon for 1 part nitrogen. Adding
nitrogen fertilizer to soil usually creates a surplus of nitrogen. To balance their diet the soil microbes go
after carbon reserves in the soil - first the easily digested stuff and then the humus.

The organic matter in the soil is lost. The soil food web, that intricate web of civilization living in the soil,
is starved and begins to die. The functions they performed, whether they be fixing nitrogen, making
phosphorus stores available or defending crops against various pests and diseases, are also lost.

As the natural system breaks down the soil organisms who survive tend to be the bad guys. Their usual
enemies are gone. Erosion of topsoil increases; pests and diseases increase. Not a good scenario.
Farmers, to maintain yields, turn to more chemical solutions. More fertilizers, more herbicides and
pesticides. And more trouble for the community making it's home in the dirt.

As well, recent research at the Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Oregon
by Dr. Jennifer Fox, found that communication links between plants and nitrogen fixing bacteria are
damaged by use of excessive synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. This leads to less nitrogen fixed naturally and
increased reliance on synthetics.

Fertilizer Runoff and Pollution

Plants can absorb the nutrients available through chemical fertilizers. However, often the dose is too
much too fast, and much of the fertilizer is wasted. As little as 10% may be actually absorbed by the crop
and rarely more than 50% of the fertilizer applied makes it into the crop grown.

The nitrogen fertilizer tends to be especially mobile in the soil. It passes right by the plants and off into
ground water polluting wells or is eroded into surface streams.

The huge ocean dead zones are a result of nitrogen and other fertilizers and farm chemicals ending up in
watersheds bound for the oceans.

Bombs and Bullets

There is still a good chunk of Haber process nitrogen that winds up in war zones. In fact many of those
roadside bombs terrorizing people in various parts of the world are made in part from Nitrogen fertilizer
synthesized with this process.

Hope - Compost and Organic Matter Restores Soils

The synthetic nitrogen fertilizers brought to us complements of the Haber process seemed at first a
boon to humanity. Synthetic chemical fertilizers have only been commonly available in the last 50 years.
Using synthetic fertilizers has become so routine farmers who use them are considered conventional
while those using the techniques thousands of years old are called organic.

Given that so little of the Haber process fertilizer actually makes it into crops (and so much into the
ocean) it seems to me that we may be able to feed the world better with a lot less chemical additions if
we pay a lot more attention to biology.