BooNZ
Banned
Each converter at the pilot plant could produce 3 tons of ammonia per day. It may not have had the best catalyst, but it definitely was designed for the production of nitrates at an industrial scale. It was only the construction of enough plants "on a timely basis" that was the problem for the German Army- not the technical difficulties that had by then been solved (even with a slightly sub-optimal catalyst). While 3 tons/day times however many converters is a far cry from the estimated 4,000 tons/day that the German Army alone required, it reduces the problem to one of building enough converters fast enough- a material, labor, and time problem, not a technical one. Give them 3 more years and they might not have built enough converters to make them self-sufficient, but they would be close enough to finish it with much less stress than OTL.
As for funding, Germany is currently paying to store 500,000 tons of nitrates in various stockpiles throughout the country. Once a system is demonstrated to replace that (which it was by October 1914), they'll drop the old stockpile system like a hot rock, even if it means spending almost as much initially to set up ammonia plants.
Yes, that illustrates the point I was making. With time on their hands, the Germans could focus on existing suboptimal solutions to the nitrates supply, rather than the OTL and vastly superior solution adopted in wartime. The OTL solution ultimately enables Germany to be a significant exporter of nitrates, which goes beyond subsidized self sufficiency.
You failed to mention the role of German state. Germany was not Britain. German state would subsidize these factories as part of infant industry policy.
Yes, there is a real possibility the German state would subsidized proven but suboptimal solutions, which would impair the development of the superior OTL solution to nitrates. The thing about state intervention is the state does not always back the correct horses.