Used As Fertilizers And Anhydrous Ammonia example essay topic

Anhydrous Ammonia is a very distinctive and important compound. Some call it a harmless fertilizer which farmers use to help grow and fertilize crops. Other may call it destructive or dangerous to the environment; in other words, a threat. Causing water pollution by toxic fluids running off into coastal waters and into storm drains and air pollution releasing toxins into the air while producing this deadly chemical, anhydrous ammonia been called many things. Anhydrous ammonia is a man-made product used for fertilizer, nitric acid production, refrigeration, disinfectant, fuel and cigarettes. It must be handled carefully by trained professionals and stored in a high-pressured environment using special equipment.

Anhydrous Ammonia is also called Ammonia and Ammonium Hydroxide. There are many ways to make Anhydrous Ammonia; one of them being from the urine in our bodies, which is an acid and can be made into any sort of ammonia. It is made by using temperature, pressure and sometimes catalysts. It is one part nitrogen and three parts hydrogen.

Anhydrous Ammonia is one of the most dangerous chemicals that can be used on the farm. Anhydrous Ammonia is a low cost and readily available fertilizer, but the danger and consequences are far worse than the lack of it. Ammonia is a colorless, pungent gas, NH 3, extensively used to manufacture fertilizers and a wide variety of nitrogen-containing organic and inorganic chemicals. It is the most familiar compound composed of the elements nitrogen and hydrogen. It is formed as a result of the decomposition of most nitrogenous organic material, and its presence is indicated by it pungent and irritating odor. It has a wide range of agricultural and industrial applications.

It is used for the production of nitric acid and ammonium salts, particularly the sulfate, nitrate, carbonate, and chloride, and the synthesis of hundreds of organic compounds including many drugs, plastics and dyes. Its dilute liquid solution finds use as a household cleaning tool. Anhydrous ammonia and ammonium salts are used as fertilizers, and anhydrous ammonia also serves as a refrigerant because of its relative ease of liquefaction and high heat of vapor ation. Ammonia is highly mobile in the liquid state and has a high thermal coefficient of expansion. The chemical and physical properties of liquid ammonia make it appropriate for use as a solvent in certain types of chemical reactions. Ammonia is generally a better solvent for covalent substances than is water.

Its major use is as a fertilizer, applied directly to soil from tanks of the liquefied gas. It dissolves readily in water to form ammonium hydroxide, an alkaline solution familiar as a household cleaner. Columbia University press concludes that "Ammonia reacts with strong acids to form stable ammonium salts: with hydrogen chloride, it forms ammonium chloride; with nitric acid, ammonium nitrate; and with sulfuric acid, ammonium sulfate. Ammonium salts of weak acids are readily decomposed into the acid and ammonia". It is prepared commercially in vast quantities.

The major method of production is the Haber process, where nitrogen is combined directly with hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures in the presences of a catalyst. It is obtained as a byproduct of the destructive distillation of coal. The cyanamide process where nitrogen gas combines with calcium carbide, CaC 2, at high temperatures to form calcium cyanamide, Can 2, and carbon; the calcium cyanamide reacts with steam to form calcium carbonate, CaCO 3, and ammonia also prepares it synthetically. For use in the laboratory, ammonia is prepared by heating an ammonium salt with a strong base.

It can also be prepared by reacting a metal nitride with water. Many people think of anhydrous ammonia as a negative thing for the environment due to some unfortunate events that have happened in the past such as spills, leaks, and other disasters that have hurt people and destroyed certain environments. There have been different controversies concerning this chemical like laws passed against liquefied compressed gas because of its "negative effects on human and the environment" says North Dakota State University. I personally believe that this chemical is essential to the environment since the pollution problem isn't a big enough issue to be considered as a threat and its use as a fertilizer is a very important.