Frank–Caro process

The synthesis produces a solid mixture of calcium cyanamide (CaCN2), also known as nitrolime, and carbon.

[1] The method was developed by the German chemists Adolph Frank and Nikodem Caro between 1895 and 1899.

In its first decades, the world market for inorganic fertilizer was dominated by factories utilizing the cyanamide process.

At this time, first phase factories were established in Briançon (France), Martigny (Switzerland), Bromberg (Prussia/Poland) and Knapsack (Germany).

In 1945 the production of calcium cyanamide reached a peak of an estimated 1.5 million tons a year.