Nitrogen commercial fertilizers

Other Reaction Products. Nitrogen reaction fertilizers are commercially available that do not involve reactions between urea and aldehydes. These are oxamide and melamine. 

Oxamide is produced commercially by Ube Industries, Ltd. (Japan) and a pilot process is being operated by Enichem (Italy). It is not produced domestically as a commercial fertilizer, although it was the subject of much research and development activity by the Tennessee Valley Authority s (TVA) National Fertilizer Research and Development Center. It is made in small quantities for industrial use by AUied Chemical, Hummel Chemical Co., and United Guardian, Inc. Oxamide has appHcation as a controlled release nitrogen source for the turf and specialty agricultural markets. 

A shortage of any of some two dozen chemical elements that are essential for the growth of organisms can reduce ecosystem productivity, but phosphorus and nitrogen are often the most limiting nutrients, which is why these two elements are standard components of commercial fertilizers. Phosphorus is often limiting because it moves through soil pores and aquatic... 

The element phosphorus, like nitrogen, is essential to plant and animal life. Although phosphorus was not identified and isolated until 1669, phosphorus-containing materials have been used as fertilizers since ancient times, usually from bird droppings, fish, and bone. The first phosphoric acid was made by treating bone ashes with sulfuric acid. This marked the beginning of the commercial fertilizer industry. Eventually, mined phosphate rock, a poor fertilizer by itself, was substituted for bones as a raw material for phosphoric acid in the mid-1880s. 

M.8 Urea is used as a commercial fertilizer because of its nitrogen content. An analysis of 25.0 mg of urea showed that it contained 5.0 mg C, 11.68 mg N,... 

It is also likely that nutrient loadings to estuaries have been greatly increased by the use of commercial fertilizers in agriculture. In the United States, the use of inorganic fertilizer has increased approximately exponentially since 1860, with the result that over 500 times more nitrogen was applied to the fields in 1980 than in 1880 (Fig. 1). 

A commercial fertilizer is a material that contains at least one of the plant nutrients in chemical form that, when applied to the soil, is soluble in the soil solution phase and assimilable or available by plant roots. Most often, this implies chemical forms that are water soluble. However, in the case of phosphorus, solubility in special reagent solutions (citric acid, neutral ammonium citrate, or alkaline ammonium citrate) often is used as a guide for availability to plants. In the case of nitrogen, slow solubility in water may be more desirable from an environmental and efficiency standpoint than easy solubility. 

What is the fate of anthropogenic Nr The immediate fate for the three anthropogenic sources is clear NO from fossil-fuel combustion is emitted directly into the atmosphere R-NH2 from rice and legume cultivation is incorporated into biomass NH3 from the Haber-Bosch process is converted primarily into commercial fertilizer applied to agro-ecosystems to produce food. However, httle fertilizer nitrogen actually enters the human mouth in the form of food in fact, most created Nr is released to environmental systems (Smil, 1999). 

The fertilizer industry is based on replenishing the primary nutrients (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Commercially, fertilizers are produced in three different forms which are single nutrient, binutrient, and multinutrient. 

The first step in extracting ammonium nitrate from commercial fertilizer is to find a suitable fertilizer source. Pure ammonium nitrate would be labelled as 34-0-0, with the 34 representing the nitrogen content, and the two zeroes re presenting the potassium and phosphorus content, respectively. The old ammonium nitrate fertilizer which used to be quite suitable for direct conversion to explosive mixtures was labelled as 32-0-0. Good luck finding any of that anymore. If you can, you just saved yourself a lot of work. 

Since most of the commercially produced urea for fertilizer applications is prilled by the tower melt solidification process and urea is one of the most important nitrogen providing fertilizers, farmers and suppliers often wrongly name all spheroidal agrochemicals prills even if they were produced by true agglomeration processes, for instance on discs or in drums (see also Section 7.4.1). 

Because of the high nitrogen content of urea and because it is easily converted to ammonia in the soil, urea is a common commercial fertilizer. Urea is also used as a protein supplement for ruminant animals, such as cattle and sheep. These animals use urea to produce proteins in their bodies. 

The commercial grade of [NH4][N03] contains 34% nitrogen. For fertilizers, it is manufactured in the form of pellets which are easily handled. Its high solubihty in water ensures efficient uptake by the soil. 

Under normal conditions, sisal does not require commercial fertilizers. But sisal responds very well to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In general, an application of 60-100 kg nitrogen, 30-35 kg phosphorus, and 60-100 kg potassium per ha per year is recommended. 

Ammonium sulfate, (NH4)2S04, and urea, CH4N2O, are both commonly used as sources of nitrogen in commercial fertilizers. If ammonium sulfate costs 7.00 for 20 lb and urea costs 21.00 for 6 lb, which has the more nitrogen for the dollar ... 

Frank and Hirano (1990) survey the potential for the production and consumption of alternative, usable, commercial byproducts in conjunction with a major reduction in national emissions of SO2 and NO,. Hiey conclude that the potential byproduct yields from the U.S. acid rain control program greatly exceed available markets for the chemical products. Byproducts evaluated in the study include gypsum, sulfuric acid, ammonium sulfate, ammonium sulfate/nitrate, and nitrogen/phosphorous fertilizer. Henzel and Ellison (1990) present a review of past, present, and potential future disposal practices and commercial FGD byproduct utilization. Hiey indicate that the only discemable trend is the production of usable gypsum by wet FGD systems. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments may create a need for disposal sites, which tend to be expensive and scarce and which could in themselves be environmental problems. Systems that produce usable byproducts are expected to become more important in the future as the disposal option becomes less viable. 

Over 95 percent of the 11 million tons of nitrogen supplied to U.S. farmers yearly in commercial fertilizers originates as synthetic ammonia made from air, water, and either a petroleum-based hydrocarbon or coal. The development of a practical ammonia synthesis process in the early years of the twentieth century was a profound scientific achievement of great social significance, in view of the subsequent dependence of the world on fertilizer for support of its growing population. 

Nitrate concentrations have not declined substantially since the early 1970s. In many streams and aquifers in North America, Europe, and Asia they have risen appreciably, but this rise has not been accompanied by any clearly discernible damage to human health. In the United States commercial fertilizers (whose overall use is now, as we have seen, much higher than in the late 1960s) are the primary nonpoint source of nitrogen in water. Excessive nitrate levels have been present in water wells throughout the American Midwest for more than two decades. Concentrations above the maximum contaminant limit (MCE) are particularly common in the Corn Belt states, as well as in North Dakota and Kansas. ... 

Nearly all commercial nitrogen fertilizer is derived from synthetic ammonia. However, prior to the introduction of ammonia synthesis processes in the early 1900s dependence was entirely on other sources. These sources are stdl utilized, but their relative importance has diminished. 

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