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Overview

Like so much else at DuPont, production of ammonia was an outgrowth of the explosives business. It was initially intended to ensure an inexpensive supply of nitrogen for the production of nitric acid, a key explosives component. By the mid-1920s however, DuPont scientists began to pursue ammonia development as a means of becoming a leader in cutting-edge, high-pressure technology. In July 1924 DuPont and L'Air Liquide, the French company that developed a successful high-pressure production process, and the National Ammonia Company had formed a holding company, Lazote, Incorporated. A plant in Belle, West Virginia, was running full by 1927.

Ammonia production was so successful that DuPont formed an Ammonia Department in 1931. The expertise gained in high-pressure catalytic reactions aided in the development of nylon intermediates. These intermediates, not available commercially outside DuPont, soon accounted for over half the department's earnings and a third of its sales and made the Belle facility DuPont's largest. The Ammonia Department also helped with the production of Lucite® and polyethylene before being renamed the Polychemicals Department in 1949.

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