The Haber Process

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Haber process
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Haber Process It had been known in the 20th century that, ecosystem or crop on the earth is heavily dependent on fixed nitrogen. So, if any, chemical method is to be found for nitrogen fixation, it would be ultimate finding for human beings to use nitrogen as a nutritive element (Bozso et al., 1977). The revolutionary chemical formulation is, however, in 1909 is done by German chemist, Fritz Haber, who fixed atmospheric nitrogen in a laboratory after much hard work. But, after 4 years of the invention of this chemical formula, in 1914, Carl Bosch had effectively industrialized Haber process for industrial applications. Moreover, apart from food production (as a fertilizer, Nh3), it can also …show more content…

Together with demands for nitrates and Ammonia’s use of fertilizers and industrialized feedstock, research for their sources became important. And as stated, in 1909, Haber was successful in introducing a method to produce Ammonia from the air. Talking about Haber process, the mixture of nitrogen (key ingredient) from the air and hydrogen from the natural gas (methane) is converted into ammonia. The temperature requirements vary with the industrial plant, still, 400-500 degree Celsius is kept, while pressure is kept between 150 and 200 atm. In this method, well distributed osmium as a catalyst is used to accelerate the process. This process is reversible and exothermic production of Ammonia is feasible with this process. Most interestingly, bread from the air slogan is also prevalent at that time because of its ability to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia …show more content…

However, in the history, it was produced to get fixed nitrogen for crop and war purposes, it turns out to be useful in different industrial areas. Discussing its uses, in fertilizer domain, ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium nitrate are used as fertilizers, while for chemical perspective, nitric acid, nitroglycerine, hydrocyanic acid and so are used widely for different applications. On the other hand, Ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3 is used as explosives, wherein nylon and other polyamides are used in fiber and plastic

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