Birkeland-Eyde process
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The Birkeland-Eyde process was developed by the Norwegian industrialist and scientist Kristian Birkeland along with his business partner Sam Eyde. This process was used to fix atmospheric nitrogen which was in turn used to produce nitric acid. This process is obsolete and is replaced by the Ostwald process.
[edit] The process
This is a tedious process and the heating is carried out in the form of pulses by passing alternating current through an electric arc and suppressing the magnetic field created by it. Birkeland used a nearby hydroelectric power station for the electricity as this process demanded about 15000 KWH/Ton. The same reaction is carried out by lightning causing the temperature to rise to about 3000°C in the atmosphere to produce nitric oxide.
The obtained nitric oxide is then oxidised to produce nitrogen dioxide.
This nitrogen di oxide is then dissolved in water to give rise to nitric acid which is then purified by fractional distillation. Much purity is not obtained (68%) as nitric oxide and water form an azeotropic mixture
