CHORZOW NITROGEN PLANT (PRODUCTIVITY, DESCRIPTION, MANPOWER)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A049300420001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 10, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP80T00246AO49300420001-8
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
50X1-HUM
COUNTRY Poland
SUBJECT Chorzow Nitrogen Plant
REPORT
DATE DISTR. to Jut
NO. PAGES 1
DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE ACQ.
report containing
information on the Chorzow Nitrogen Plant in Chorzow.
STATE ARMY I #X NAVY I #X AIR
FBI
AEC
Q
0
I (Note: Washington distribution indicated by "X"; Field distribution by "#".)
11 1111 IjIll
[MMMIMM
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP80T00246AO49300420001-8
The Chorzow Nitrogen Plant
DATE DISTRIB: 22 June 1959
50X1-HUM
1. The Chorzow Nitrogen Plant (Zaklady Azotowe Chorzow) was originally
built before and during World War I by the Reichsstickstoffwerke Chorzow
to produce calcium cyanamide. The construction of the ovens has not
changed since 1922. The plant was situated on the west side of the
Brzeziny-Slask-Katowice railroad at Chorzow. It had an estimated 1600
workers. The managing director was Rubyk (fnu) until October 1958, when
he was transferred to the Coke-Chemical Metallurgical Association
(Zjednoczenie Koksochemicznego-Hutnicze). The plant produced about
35,000 kw of electric power in four turbines. Since 1955, two new La
Mont boilers with powdered bituminous coal burners have been built for
steam production; older boilers had traveling grates.
The main products of the plant were calcium carbide, calcium cyanamide,
and synthetic NH3.
2. Calcium Carbide. The plant operated three ovens, each with a capacity
of about 300 tons of carbide a day, and six ovens, each with a capacity
of about 150 tons a day. Two of the larger ovens used 0-15 mm semi-coke
from Oswiecim; they had a lower specific consumption, probably because of
higher reactivity and higher electric resistance of the coke. The other
ovens used high-temperature coke, normally a mixture of 30 percent 0-5 mm
breeze and 70 percent 10-20 mm lump. The carbide was in the following
sizes-
0-2 mm about 5-7 percent
2-4 mm of
4-7 mm each size
7-35 mm about 20 percent
35-80 mm about 73-75 percent
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The average acetylene yield of the carbide was 295 to 302 liters per
kilogram. Production of one ton of carbide required 4200 kwh, about
one ton of CaCO3, and about 0.8 ton of coke,
3.
Calcium Cyanamide. About 30 percent of the carbide produced,
with an
added three percent of CaF2, was used to produce cyanamide.
were operated to produce "white" cyanamide from CaCO3 and NH3
duce KCN from KOH, CO, and NH3.
Pilot plants
and to pro-
it.
NHj. The NH3 synthesis was carried out in two units, each with a daily
capacity of about 600 tons. Synthesis gas was produced from high-tempera-
ture coke in semi-automatic water-gas producers of the Bamag type, each
with a capacity of 3500 to 5000 cubic meters per hour. Since 1947-1948,
the catalyst used, in the synthesis process was the usual I.G. Farben cat-
alyst.
a. A pilot plant for production of water gas from bituminous coal by the
Koppers-Totzek method was put in operation in 1954. The water gas
shift was carried out at atmospheric pressure. The catalyst used in
this process was the so-called brown oxide (about 85 percent Fe203 and
15 percent C02C>3)
b. The dry method, with a mixture of bog iron ore and the so-called
"Lauta" residue (a by-product of the aluminum industry) imported from
East Germany, was used to remove sulfur from a portion of the gas. Sul-
fur and C02 were removed from the remainder. The towers for this pur-
pose were about 18 meters high and had an hourly throughput of about
8000 cubic meters of gas each. The exit gas still contained 1.6 per-
cent of C02. The pressure water was expanded in Pelton turbines. The
energy recovered during expansion was about 60 percent of the power
needed for pumping water to the top of the towers.
c. CO was removed under pressure of about 25 atmospheres, using ammoni-
acal copper solution at about 15? to 200 C during absorption. Re-
generation was carried out under a vacuum of 150 to 200 mm Hg at about
40? C in two stages.
d. Most of the NH3 produced was bound as ammonium sulfate, the remainder,
after part was oxidized to HNO , as ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate-
nitrate, ammonium chloride, an ammonium phosphateo In the last months
of 1958, a pilot plant to produce ammonium carbonate and another to
produce urea began operating.
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