Ammonia industrial uses

HNO3. Nitric acid is a very strong acid about 6.8 million metric tons per year are manufactured for industrial purposes in the US. Most of it is produced from ammonia by the catalytic oxidation to NO, which is then further oxidized to NO2. Addition of water forms HNO3. Most of the nitric acid produced is used in the manufacture of fertilizers, and a lesser amount is used to make explosives. 

Most of us are familiar with the hquid form of ammonia known as ammonium hydroxide (NH OH), a colorless liquid that, with its strong odor, is irritating to the eyes and potentially harmful to the moist mouth and nose, throat, and lungs if its vapors are breathed. Weak solutions of NH OH are ingredients in household cleaning ammonia. Concentrated ammonium hydroxide has many industrial uses, including the manufacture of rayon, fertilizers, refrigerants, rubber, pharmaceuticals, soaps lubricants, inks, explosives, and household cleaners. 

Two of the most important classes of chemical compounds are acids and bases. A small sampling of acids and bases found around the home demonstrates their importance in daily life. A few of these include fruit juice, aspirin, milk, ammonia, baking soda, vinegar, and soap. Beyond their presence in numerous household items, acids and bases are key ingredients in the chemical process industry. More sulfuric acid is produced than any other chemical in the United States with an annual production of 40 million tons. While the commercial applications of acids and bases illustrate their importance in everyday life, on a more fundamental level each one of us inherited our characteristics and genetic make-up through the acid DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. 

Kthylemminc is a relative newcomer us a commercial product, topping one million pounds per year tor the first time in 1464. Its price tumbled from 2 u pound to less than 90 cents a pound because of a new process which produced tl from ethylene dichloridc and ammonia. With the unique properties imparted by clhyJcnimmc and its derivatives in adhesives, coatings, flneculants, and paper, cthyleniminc seems destined to become a major industrial chemical... 

Chemical kinetics is a subject of crucial environmental and economic importance. In the upper atmosphere, for example, maintenance or depletion of the ozone layer, which protects us from the sun s harmful ultraviolet radiation, depends on the relative rates of reactions that produce and destroy O3 molecules. In the chemical industry, the profitability of the process for the synthesis of ammonia, which is used as a fertilizer, depends on the rate at which gaseous N2 and H2 can be converted to NH3. 

The demand for nitrogen in a chemically fixed form (as opposed to elemental nitrogen gas) drives a huge international industry that encompasses the production of seven key chemical nitrogen products ammonia, urea, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, nitrogen solutions, ammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphates. Such nitrogen products had a total worldwide annual commercial value of about US 50 billion in 1996. The cornerstone of this industry is ammonia. Virtually all ammonia is produced in anhydrous form via the Haber process (as described in Chapter 2). Anhydrous ammonia is the basic raw material in a host of applications and in the manufacture of fertilizers, livestock feeds, commercial and military explosives, polymer intermediates, and miscellaneous chemicals35. 

Knowing the factors that affect chemical equilibrium has great practical value for industrial applications, such as the synthesis of ammonia. The Haber process for synthesizing ammonia from molecular hydrogen and nitrogen uses a heterogeneous catalyst to speed up the reaction (see p. 540). Let us look at the equilibrium reaction for ammonia synthesis to determine whether there are factors that could be manipulated to enhance the yield. 

Production of sulfuric acid, ammonia and phosphate rock (see Section 14.2) heads the inorganic chemical and mineral industries in the US. The oxidation of SO2 to SO3 (equation 26.32) is the first step in the Contact process, and in Section 15.8 we discussed how the yield of SO3 depends on temperature and pressure. At ordinary temperatures, the reaction is too slow to be commercially viable, while at very high temperatures, equilibrium 26.32 shifts to the left, decreasing the yield of SO3. 

Let us take a look at one final example of this, ammonia synthesis, which is very important to industrial applications. We assume a closed system at constant volume ... 

In the former Soviet Union much use is made of industrial by-products to prepare acid inhibitors. The PB class is obtained by treating technical butyraldehyde with ammonia and polymerising the resulting aldehyde-ammonia. PB-S, for example, with 0 01-0 15% of an arsenic salt is us in 20-25% HCl. A mixture of urotropine (hexamethyleneimine, hexamine) with potassium iodide, a regulator and a foaming agent is the ChM inhibitor. BA-6 is prepared from the condensation product of hexamine with aniline. A more recent development is the Katapin series which consists of p-alkyl benzyl pyridine chlorides Katapin A, for example, is the p-dodecyl compound. 

---