Ammonia production



Because of its many uses, ammonia is one of the most highly-produced inorganic chemicals. There are literally dozens of large-scale ammonia production plants worldwide. The worldwide production in 2004 was 109,000,000 metric tons.[1] China produced 28.4% of the worldwide production followed by India with 8.6%, Russia with 8.4%, and the United States with 8.2%. About 80% or more of the ammonia produced is used for fertilizing agricultural crops. Ammonia is also used for the production of plastics, fibers, explosives, and intermediates for dyes and pharmaceuticals.

History

Before the start of World War I, most ammonia was obtained by the dry sal-ammoniac).

The Fritz Haber in 1908. In 1910 Carl Bosch, while working for the German chemical company BASF, successfully commercialized the process and secured further patents. It was first used on an industrial scale by the Germans during World War I. Since then, the process has often been referred to as the Haber-Bosch process.

Modern ammonia-producing plants

A typical modern ammonia-producing plant first converts natural gas (i.e., methane) or ammonia.

Starting with a natural gas feedstock, the processes used in producing the hydrogen are:

H2 + RSH → RH + H2S(gas)
  • The gaseous hydrogen sulfide is then absorbed and removed by passing it through beds of zinc oxide where it is converted to solid zinc sulfide:
H2S + ZnO → ZnS + H2O
CH4 + H2O → CO + 3H2
  • The next step then uses catalytic shift conversion to convert the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and more hydrogen:
CO + H2O → CO2 + H2
  • The carbon dioxide is then removed either by absorption in aqueous ethanolamine solutions or by adsorption in pressure swing adsorbers (PSA) using proprietary solid adsorption media.
  • The final step in producing the hydrogen is to use catalytic methanation to remove any small residual amounts of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide from the hydrogen:
CO + 3H2 → CH4 + H2O
CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 +2H2O

To produce the desired end-product ammonia, the hydrogen is then catalytically reacted with nitrogen (derived from process air) to form anhydrous liquid ammonia. This step is known as the ammonia synthesis loop (also referred to as the Haber-Bosch process):

3H2 + N2 → 2NH3

The steam reforming, shift conversion, carbon dioxide removal and methanation steps each operate at absolute pressures of about 25 to 35 bar, and the ammonia synthesis loop operates at absolute pressures ranging from 60 to 180 bar depending upon which proprietary design is used. There are many engineering and construction companies that offer proprietary designs for ammonia synthesis plants. Haldor Topsoe of Denmark, Uhde GmbH of Germany, and Kellogg Brown & Root of the United States are among the most experienced companies in that field.

See also

References

  1. ^ United States Geological Survey publication
  2. ^ Twygg, Martyn V. (1989). Catalyst Handbook, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press. ISBN 1-874545-36-7. 
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ammonia_production". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.