Introduction
A compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, ammonia contributes significantly to society today, despite its caustic and hazardous nature. Ammonia bears a wide range of uses - acting as a fertiliser, being utilised as an alkaline cleanser, as a refrigerant and so on. In industry, it is also used to manufacture nitric acid which itself is used for other the production of other compounds.
Alone, it can be used as a fertiliser in which case its anhydrous form is injected into soil, resulting in removal of hydrogen ions and hence forming NH4+. The ammonium ions can then be readily absorbed by plants. In regards to agricultural usage, ammonia can also be reacted with nitric acid to form ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate, having a large percentage of nitrogen, is also suitable for use as a fertiliser. Most of the ammonia produced industrially is used agriculturally.
As lipids are soluble within ammonia solution, relatively dilute solutions of ammonia (5-10% by weight) can be used for household cleaning. For instance, ammonia solution is typically used in oven cleaning, where fatty substances may adhere to the metallic racks and/or sides of the oven.
After it was realised that chlorofluorocarbons deplete the ozone layer, ammonia has become a substitute for use in industrial refrigeration. Its ideal thermodynamic properties – a high enthalpy of evaporation, for instance, make it suitable for this use. Due to ammonia reacting readily with copper, it is unsuitable for use in smaller, compact refrigerators such as ones within households. Hence, ammonia as a refrigerant gas is restricted largely to industrial use, owing to its toxicity also.
Production
Ammonia is produced in immense amounts through the Haber-Bosch process, based upo...
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The ammonia produced via the Haber process is strongly linked to the agricultural industry, that is, it is used for fertilisers to feed our growing population. When applied to plants, only some of the nitrogen is absorbed. Eventually, when rain fall occurs, the fertiliser ends up into water bodies such as lakes or oceans. As nitrogen and/or phosphorus are commonly the limiting factors of algal growth (Fried, 2003), the result of fertiliser within water bodies can be detrimental, as indicated by Figure 3.
Cyanobacteria, more commonly called blue-green algae, produce toxins theoretically sufficient enough to result in human death. Otherwise, mass mortalities of aquatic life can also result from either neurotoxin release by cyanobacteria, or otherwise reduce the amount of oxygen dissolved in water via aerobic decomposition or respiration.
Nitrification??? PM2.5
Nitrogen and nitrates relate to Hypoxia via the process of eutrophication. Since Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient in most waters, the added input of nitrate causes massive growth in algae. The algae rapidly consume all available N, and once the nutrient is limited again, the alga dies en masse. As the alga decomposes, oxygen is depleted in the water. This lowers dangerously lowers the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, which harms living organisms in the area. Small organisms and organisms that are immobile or unable to escape low-oxygen areas are particularly vulnerable. Hypoxia and resulting “dead zones” are harmful to local fishing and shrimping industries and algal blooms hurt the tourism industry. Hypoxia has lead to a decrease of about 25% in the brown shrimp habitat, forcing shrimping operations further offshore. As the hypoxia issue continues to grow, negative human effects will only increase. Since nitrate runoff from ag. has been proven to be the dominant source of hypoxia, policies could be enacted to effectively deal with “point-source” pollution. This makes enacting environmental policy more easily adapted, possibly included in past policy such as the Clean Water Act.
Ammonium nitrate, on its own, is relatively harmless in regards to explosives. Ammonium Nitrate is a secondary explosive; it requires a primary explosive for detonation. It is able to burn without detonating and can withstand shock in which primary explosives are unable to do When ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel oil and detonated the results can be catastrophic. The Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 is evidence of the impact of a blast using ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, known as ANFO. Timothy McVeigh parked a van filled with ammonium nit...
This toxic algae has been proliferating extremely rapidly over the past years. One of the reasons of this is warming waters. Warming waters is a phenomenon that has been increasing significantly over the past 20 years. The main reason that this is happening is because of global warming: Since planet Earth gets warmer, its oceans get warmer too.
In mammals, ammonia excretion is unsuitable for disposing of nitrogenous waste on land. Mammals would have to urinate profusely to eliminate ammonia because of the toxicity, which would have to transport through the animal to be excreted in an extremely dilute solution. However...
Nitrogen fertilizers: firstly nitrogen is found in the air, so air is pumped into a large vessel. The air is warmed and oxygen is removed becoming steam. This leaves hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. To remove the carbon dioxide an electric current is introduced into the system. And finally remains ammonia. Ammonia is further processed adding air to the solution and making nitric acid. In conclusion when ammonia and nitric acid are combined is made ammonium nitrate, the component used as fertilizers.
Anhydrous ammonia is stored as a liquid in pressurized tanks and after it has been sold to local farmers, they use it by injecting it directly into their soil where it then turns into a gas. It has a melting point of around -108 degrees Fahrenheit and an explosive range between a Lower explosive limit (LEL) of 15% and an Upper explosive limit (UEL) of 28% when mixed in air. Ammonium nitrate is typical found and used in its prill form where it is spread across the fields as a fertilizer. Ammonium Nitrate does not typical, under normal circumstances, pose an explosive hazard alone by itself but when combined with some sort of fuel it will act as an oxidizer during that process, literally adding fuel to the fire. “Both of these common fertilizers can become explosive under the right conditions.” (Fernandez & Schwartz, 2013)
Prills, granules, and crystals are primarily used in fertilizers. Low density prills and grains are the kind found in explosives (Ammonium Nitrate). Ammonium nitrate is extremely soluble, which is necessary for its use in cold packs. The ammonium nitrate is dissolved into water which causes an endothermic reaction. This means that the temperature of the cold pack will drop immediately after the two substances are mixed causing an instant cold pack (Mathews, J 2014). Fertilizers, similar to herbicides and fungicides, are chemical products used that control how a plant is able to grow. They often contain ammonium nitrate which is very beneficial to the plant (ammonium Nitrate fact sheet). In fertilizer ammonium nitrate is often combined with Urea and other chemicals, It provides nitrogen to the plant through nitrate which is much more quickly delivered at the roots, as well as ammonium nitrate which takes longer (Ammonium Nitrate Fact Sheet). Both are forms of nitrogen, whose purpose is defending against pests, new leaf growth and is part of the chlorophyll molecule that keeps the plant green among other things. It is one of the most effective and beneficial forms of plant fertilizer, and therefore extremely widely used. However the most common use for ammonium nitrate is military explosives. The form of ammonium nitrate used in explosives in called a granule, which is created by continually spraying the
In the petroleum refining process, nitrobenzene is mostly used as solvent in the production of acetate and ethers
Ammonia (NH3) concentration in biogas does not exceed 0.1 mg/m3. The presence of ammonia in higher concentration is attributed to the increased nitrogen content of the substrate used (e.g. poultry manure).
In recent years, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) have been employed to minimize water usage and environmental nutrient loading due to intensive fish farming. The recirculating of water throughout an RAS relies upon nitrifying microorganisms to transform ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. Nitrate is generally non-toxic to the fish species being raised. Additionally, as recirculating aquaculture systems have evolved, stocking densities have been pushed to their limit. As these RAS are pushed to their limits, problems with...
Firstly, the cycle involves nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation is a process of forming ammonia (NH3) or nitrate (NO3-) from inorganic nitrogen in the atmosphere. Organisms are not able to consume the molecular nitrogen directly. As a result, plants and organisms must consume the nitrogen in stable compound for example nitrate ions (NO3-), ammonia (NH3) and urea (NH2)2CO. Bacteria are the only organisms that capable to produce ammonia from nitrogen gas. Moran et al. (2012) reported that cyanobacteria performed half of the nitrogen fixation while the other half is from soil bacteria. Nitrogen fixation helps in preventing overall nitrogen deficiency (Newton, 1999). Nitrogen fixation occ...
Temperature has a strong effect on nitrifying bacteria, as in the case of heterotrophic aerobic bacteria. The temperature dependence for the nitrification process corresponds to an Arrhenius equation, at least below 30 °C. At higher temperatures (30-35 ° C), the growth rate of nitrifying bacteria is constant and Begins to decrease between 35 and 40 °C. The two-stage biological nitrification process is a two-sludge system which is generally used when ammonia Disposal is subject to advanced treatment. The process is also used prior to biological denitrification systems where nitrate removal is required. The first step of the two-step process is typically a high-throughput activated sludge that is designed to achieve at least 75% to 85% elimination of carbonated BOD5. By realizing this Level of reduction of BOD5 in the first stage, conditions can be developed in the second step to improve nitrification. The nitrification of ammonia into nitrate occurs chiefly in the second stage. Nitrification is realized in a two-stage process by the biological activities of two specific groups of bacteria known as Nitrosomonas and
In thermodynamics Refrigeration is the major application area, in which the heat is transferred from a lower temperature region to a higher temperature region. The devices which produce refrigeration are known as Refrigerators and the cycle on which it operates are called refrigeration cycles. Vapour compression refrigeration cycle is the most regularly used refrigeration cycle in which the refrigerant is alternately vaporized and condensed and in the vapor phase it is compressed. Gas refrigeration cycle is the well-known refrigeration cycle in which cycle refrigerant remains in the gaseous phase throughout the cycle. Cascade refrigeration are the other refrigeration cycles discussed in this chapter; absorption refrigeration is the one more refrigeration cycle which is used where the refrigerant is dissolved in liquid before it is compressed. One more refrigeration in which refrigeration is produced by passing the electric current through two dissimilar materials is called as the thermoelectric refrigeration.
Nitrogen is used by plants in order to synthesize protein peptide bonds and for cell growth. Not only is this nutrient required in the largest quantity by plants, but it is also the most frequently limiting factor when it comes to productivity in crops. Plants cannot use nitrogen in the air and in the soil system it is lost easily. Because of this plants are forced to obtain nitrogen in the form of nitrate and ammonium from the soil. Too much nitrate can cause a negative effect on the plant including nitrate toxicity. High levels of nitrate are not only bad for plants but can also be dangerous to animals or humans in their presence. Here I discuss the scientific evidence of the effects of nitrate accumulation on plants and the environment and argue that too much nitrate accumulation can be harmful to its surroundings.