By the 1920s, Norsk Hydro's electric arc-based technology for manufacturing artificial fertilizer was no longer able to compete with the newly developed Haber-Bosch process, and in 1927 the company formed a partnership with the German company IG Farben in order to gain access to this process.
32.
Nitrogen fixation by industrial processes like the Frank Caro process ( 1895 1899 ) and Haber Bosch process ( 1908 1913 ) eased this shortage of nitrogen compounds, to the extent that half of global food production ( see Applications ) now relies on synthetic nitrogen fertilisers.
33.
Germany, at the start of the war, had an advantage over Britain in their ability to manufacture explosives inexpensively : they had pioneered mixing ammonium nitrate and TNT to create amatol, which was similar to pure TNT in effectiveness, and understood the Haber-Bosch process and applied it in plants to produce the necessary nitrogen compounds.
