WAR: DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Jorge Arturo Forero Torres 25492463

The twentieth century was from any point of view one of the most upsets

periods in human history, due to the world war conflicts that took place during

the first 50 years of this period. The sector of the chemical industry (Which is

responsible for chemically transforming raw materials or initial products, often

of natural origin, into other products of biggest interest), which was born in the

nineteenth century, due to the need to produce in high quantities certain basic

chemicals, Presented one of the most important economic growth during this

century, because the war forced that sector to mass produce products that at

that time did not produce, such as chemical weapons, fuels or synthetic

products. It can be said then that the warlike conflicts that happened in the

20th century led to the growth of industry in the most developed countries, but

especially of the chemical industry, since through this the most important

technological advances were made during the century, based mainly on the

production of fuels, chemical weapons and synthetic products.

The evolution of chemical weapons is closely linked to the evolution of the

chemical industry, since most of the advances achieved by industry were used

to use them as weapons during the world wars that took place in the 20th

century. An example of this was the German chemical industry during the First

World War (Pita, 2008): After the outbreak of this war in 1914, Germany had to

implement Chlorine gas as a chemical weapon since they could not produce

conventional weapons. This led to the German chemical industry becoming a

fundamental tool in the war, reaching fifty times more workers than it had at

the beginning of the war. Also in World War I, a process that would be very

important in the history of humanity was strengthened, the Haber process for

the production of ammonia (used for explosives mainly) (Pita, 2008). Today,

more than 100 million tons of ammonia are produced through this process, so it

can be seen how the war directly influenced that development. Although the

use of chemical weapons is banned for the international community (CAQ,

1997), and it has been debated whether its use through history was necessary,

there is no doubt that the use of most of these chemical weapons boosted

certain industrial processes that today are the basis of the chemical industry.

But it has not only been the use of chemical weapons that has been able to

economically boost the chemical industry; the continuous use of fuels for all

war vehicles has allowed petro chemistry, an important part of the chemical

industry to have strengthened strongly in the twentieth century. During World

War II, the need for high amounts of high octane gasoline for US fighter jets

propelled the development of catalytic reforming (Saavedra, 1984), a chemical

process used in the refining of petroleum to produce gasoline, which is still

widely used in the oil industry. Another process that was developed during the

second war was the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which allowed Germany to

produce hydrocarbons from coal and natural gas due to the allied blockade of

German oil sources; this process produced 14,000 barrels per day, a figure

quite considerable for the time. These production schemes have been strongly

debated over the last decade because of their impact on the environment;

however, renewable energy sources do not yet have the necessary levels of
production (10% of world production) to replace these processes (85% of world

production). It can be observed that the production of fuels has been of great

importance for the strengthening of the chemical industry, even though the

environment has been affected.

It should also be highlighted the role of synthetic products in the development

of the chemical industry, since these had to be developed by not having the

natural resource available, mainly during the world wars. For example,

synthetic rubber production in the United States expanded significantly in

World War II because the Axis powers controlled almost all limited natural

rubber supplies in the world (Long, 2001); by the end of the war, in the United

States a value of about half of the world production was produced, in a total of

50 factories. Another synthetic product that took on great force during the

second war was nylon, which replaced the Chinese silk for the allies in the

production of ropes and parachutes, vital for the war (Clasper, 1955).

Nowadays, this product is part of the daily life of all people and its production is

worldwide. It is said that these synthetic products are worse in quality than

natural products; However, numerous studies show that both rubber and nylon

have better properties than their natural counterparts. It is to be noted then, as

the synthetic products industry has also strengthened the chemical industry,

mainly during the war.

During this essay it was shown how the chemical industry was boosted due to

the warlike conflicts that occurred in the 20th century. It was shown the
influence of chemical weapons on the growth of the chemical industry, mainly

in the first world war, where the production of Chlorine gas and ammonia had a

huge impact on the development of the war. It was also demonstrated how the

chemical industry was strengthened through the development of synthetic

products, such as nylon and synthetic rubber, and advances in the field of

petrochemical, with the development of catalytic reforming and the synthesis

of Fischer-Tropsch, all of these during the Second World War. All these

developments presented problems of a humanitarian nature (the use of

chemical weapons is prohibited internationally), environmental (the

environmental impact of the exploitation of hydrocarbons is incalculable) or

reputation (synthetic products are generally considered to be of lower quality).

However, these problems did not affect the development of the chemical

industry, and the work of the chemical engineer mainly, will solve these

problems in the immediate future, for the strengthening of humanity. 0

References:
Clasper, M., Haslam, J. and Mooney, E. (1955). Examination of an interpolymer
of polycaproamide, polyhexamethylenediamineadipamide and poly-p-
diaminodicyclohexylmethaneadipamide (nylon 6, nylon 66 and nylon PACM 6).
The Analyst, 80(956), p.812.
Goldblat, J. (1997). Convencin sobre las armas biolgicas Consideraciones
generales. Revista Internacional de la Cruz Roja, 22(141), p.263.
Long, J. (2001). The History of RubberA Survey of Sources about the History
of Rubber. Rubber Chemistry and Technology, 74(3), pp.493-508.
Pita, Ren (2008). Armas qumicas: la ciencia en manos del mal. Madrid: Plaza
y Valds, pp. 24-33
Saavedra, E. (1984). History of the Petroleum and Chemical Industry
Committee. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IA-20(4), pp.1034-1037.