Nitrogen Fertilizer Research Paper

What Is Nitrogen Fertilizer?
Nitrogen is a major nutrient needed by all plants to grow. Although nitrogen exists abundantly in the atmosphere, relatively some plants are able to convert atmospheric nitrogen to a form they are able to use. Typically, nitrogen is used as commercial fertilizer supplement for depleted soil. Fertilizers are classified as “organic" fertilizers, which are naturally occurring substances such as manure, and "inorganic" fertilizers, which are manufactured through a chemical process.
Ammonium nitrate is an inorganic fertilizer consisting of nitrous compound. Fertilizers are available in different forms: liquid, which must be sprayed into the ground, or dry pellets, which can be applied to the surface of the soil manually

Nitrogen fertilizers can be used on a wide range of plants, from the household garden to commercial land crops. They are currently being used in one-third of the world's total crop production, including maize, barley and soybean. Nitrogen fertilizers are as well immensely used on commercial lawns, such as great proportion of the world's golf courses.
Manufacturing Process
Nitrogen fertilizer is manufactured using the Haber process, a chemical reaction developed firstly by German chemist Fritz Haber in 1909. Gaseous hydrogen and nitrogen are reacted to produce ammonia, which is essential for the production of fertilizers. The ammonia is further processed to produce nitrous compounds which can be absorbed by plants. Yearly, 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers are produced using this process.
Types of nitrogenous fertilizers
Nitrogenous fertilizers are classified into four main categories according to their structure. Each group has its special molecular formula and its special properties.
There are mainly four types of nitrogenous fertilizers. Ammonia gas is the main raw material used in making nitrogenous fertilizers. We will discuss the manufacturing process of ammonia and some of the famous nitrogenous fertilizers. The most common examples of these nitrogenous fertilizers are:
a. Urea [CO (NH2)],
b. Ammonium sulphate

The gas stream is passed over a Cr/Fe3O4 catalyst at 360oC firstly followed by Cu/ZnO/Cr catalyst at 210oC. The same reaction occurs in both steps, however using the both steps with catalysts maximizes conversion.
Step 4 - Water removal
The gas mixture is then further cooled to 40oC, where water condenses out and is removed.
Step 5 - Removal of carbon oxides
The gases are then pumped up through a counter-current of UCARSOL solution (an MDEA solution).Due to the high solubility of carbon dioxide in UCARSOL; more than 99.9% of the CO2 in the mixture dissolves in it. The remaining CO2 (as well as any CO that was not converted to CO2 in Step 3) are converted to methane (by methanation reaction) using a Ni/Al2O3 catalyst at 325oC:
CO + 3H2 → CH4 + H2O
CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O
The steam which is produced in these reactions is removed by condensation at 40oC. The carbon dioxide is removed from the UCARSOL and used in urea manufacture. The UCARSOL is cooled and reused for carbon dioxide