Comprehensive Report: Haber Process, Production, Uses and Impact

This report provides a detailed examination of the Haber process, also known as the Haber-Bosch process, which is a crucial industrial process for synthesizing ammonia. It begins with a historical overview, tracing its development by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch during the First World War, and explains the initial methods of ammonia production before the Haber process. The report then delves into the uses of ammonia, particularly in agriculture for fertilizer production, as well as its applications in the chemical and other industries. A step-by-step explanation of the Haber process is given, including the sourcing of reactants (nitrogen from air and hydrogen from natural gas), the reaction conditions (catalyst, pressure, and recycling), and the exothermic nature of the reaction. The report also analyzes the bond energies involved in the process and uses the equilibrium constant equation to demonstrate how equilibrium can be attained. Additionally, the collision theory is applied to explain product formation. The report also discusses the industrial utilization of ammonia, including its role in fertilizers, and evaluates the environmental impacts associated with ammonia production and fertilizer use. Finally, it explores alternative methods and future innovations in ammonia production, along with challenges faced by the Haber process.

Running Head: Haber Process 1
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HABER PROCESS.
 Introduction and History of the Haber process;
It is also referred to as the Haber-Bosch process was developed by a chemist from Germany by
the name Fritz Haber between the years 1868-1934; this was at the commencing of the First
World War. It is within this time that German imported all the nitrates they required for their
fertilizer production as well as the necessary explosives from South America. Due to the pressure
created by the war and the military field, there was increased need for more explosives and thus
more nitrates were needed. In the year 1908, this man called Fritz Haber managed to develop a
simple catalytic method which was necessarily for synthesizing ammonia from its own elements.
A German chemical engineer by the name Carl Bosch came in for the aid of Fritz Haber in the
year 1914 and helped him convert the process into a firm industrial process meaning that more of
ammonia would be synthesized. Over the First World War, there was restriction of the nitrates
getting to Germany from South America by the British blockades and with the help of the Haber
process, fertilizers and explosives were still being made available in Germany.
Ammonia is an inorganic compound which is colorless in appearance. Ammonia is a compound
which is made up of Hydrogen and Nitrogen. As stated earlier, Nitrogen is obtained from air and
Hydrogen is extracted from the natural gases. The formula for Ammonia is NH3. Ammonia is
mostly in gaseous form and it is characterized by a pungent odor. Ammonia tends to be irritating
to the eyes, the skin, the nose, the throat, and even the lungs. Just but to mention, ammonia has a
lot of uses in the industry (Industrial uses) as well as use in many biological processes which will
definitely be discusses late within this essay.

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Additionally, Ammonia is said to be an azane which comprises rather consists of one atom of
nitrogen which is covalently bonded to three atoms of hydrogen. Ammonia has vital application
as a reagent of nucleophile, a metabolite as well, an EC 3.5.1.4 neurotoxin, a metabolite, in
refrigeration and as a mouse metabolite (All this will be discussed into details under uses of
ammonia). Ammonia is a conjugate acid of azanide and a conjugate base of ammonium.
Any solution containing not less than 50% of ammonia but more than 35% of ammonia appears
as a colorless liquid and happens to be corrosive to the metal and the tissues. Despite the fact that
ammonia tends to be lighter than air, it case it is exposed into the air, the fumes from the leak or
exposure will hug the ground. Both long term exposure and short term exposure of the ammonia
to the air will lead to irritation once inhaled and can even go to an extent of leading to adverse
health conditions. Besides, prolonged leaking or exposure of the containers to fire may lead to
rocketing or even violent rupturing.
 How was Ammonia produced initially;
Long before the development of the Haber-Bosch process, ammonia was produced on small
scale in South America using other complex materials. These materials became hard to get as
the need of Ammonia Increased, this increase in demand lead to need of a better way to provide
the Ammonia in large scale now. Haber process came in place.
 Uses of Ammonia produced by the Haber process;
Ammonia has a number of uses ranging from those in the Agricultural industry to the Chemical
Industry. However, the main uses of Ammonia are in the making of fertilizer. About 80% of the
ammonia produced goes to the Agricultural uses and mostly as fertilizer. Ammonia constitutes
greater percentage of nitrates which are highly demanded for proper growth of plants. Besides,

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ammonia is used in the fertilizer industry in the manufacturing of liquid fertilizer solutions
constituting of urea, ammonium nitrates which produce nitrate salts as well as ammonium. In the
leather industry, ammonia is used as slime or a curing agent.it can as well be used in tanning as a
mold preventive and protective agent for stored furs and stored leather. Ammonia can as well be
used in the nitric acid manufacturing, alkalis such as soda ash; dyes; pharmaceuticals such as
sulfa drugs, vitamins and cosmetics; synthetic textile fibers such as nylon, rayon and acrylics; for
the f plastics manufacture such as polyurethanes.
Other uses include; used as a refrigerant in industrial refrigerant system, rubber industry, pulp
and paper industry, as a neutralization acid, in metal treating operations, and even in food and
beverage industry as source of nitrogen useful in microorganisms and yeast.
 Step by step explanation of the Haber process
Combining of Nitrogen and Hydrogen is the very first step in the production of Ammonia.
Hydrogen is taken into the system from the natural gases while the Nitrogen is extracted from the
air. The reaction of reacting Hydrogen and Nitrogen is reversible and the process of producing
Ammonia is exothermic reaction meaning that heat is produced. The most conversant pressure
used in this process is 200 Atmospheres which ensures maximum production of Ammonia. The
gases under the 200 Atmospheres of pressure are heated to 450ºC and the n afterwards passes
through a vast tank normally containing a catalyst. The most preferred catalyst is iron.
Afterwards, the reaction mixture of Hydrogen and Nitrogen is then cooled so that ammonia is
liquidities and can now be extracted. Towards the end of the process, there is a certain

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percentage of Nitrogen and Hydrogen that is unreacted, it is recycled back to the first tank for
reuse and this makes the Haber process economical.
 Conditions for the production of Ammonia in the Haber process;
Haber process involves some conditions which include a catalyst, the pressure and recycling of
some of the products. A catalyst is a substance that increases or boosts the rate of the reaction.
Iron is the catalyst used in the Haber process which is somehow promoted using Potassium
Oxide, Calcium Oxide, Silicon (IV) Oxide and Aluminum (IV) Oxide. However, Osmium as a
catalyst was once used but it available was less and it was replaced by Uranium which was
available in the necessary quantities. The pressure used in the Haber process is needed in
equilibrium considerations. The pressure should be equal in both sides of the reaction, once one
side exceeds then this may not favor the latter. For high quality and quality manufacture of
ammonia, as much as 200 atmospheres of pressure is applied but the pressure should not be
exceedingly high. From this, we can say that increasing the pressure bring more molecules closer
to each other making the reaction rate greater thus greater production of ammonia. So we can
conclude that the rate at which ammonia is produced highly varies according to the pressure
used.
Recycling is also a major condition is the Haber process in that only a small ration of both
Nitrogen and Hydrogen that had been used in the plant is used. A much greater ration of both
Nitrogen and Hydrogen remains unused and thus recycled.
Economic considerations tend to be a condition as well especially for the large scale production.
To make the production successful in high pressure, it is equally highly expensive and
demanding in that one needs to buy quit strong and expensive pipes as well as containment

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vessels. Equally, there is a specific compromise pressure that should be used which is of 200
atmospheres. High pressure requires higher economic demand.
 Bond energies in finding of enthalpy in the Haber process.
Just like in any other chemical reactions, the Haber process involved in the production of
Ammonia takes into considerations the bond energies involved. To calculate the energies,
the only important skills required are the addition and subtraction skills only. The energy
used in breaking of bonds is called exothermic energy while that used in making of bonds
is called endothermic. It is also important to note that during an exothermic reaction,
energy is taken in whereas during the endothermic reaction, energy is given out.
In the Haber process, Hydrogen and Nitrogen are reacted together and combined to
produce ammonia. The chemical equation involved here is;
N2 (g) + 3 H2 (g) 2NH3 (g)
The enthalpy change for this reaction of Nitrogen and Hydrogen shows that the reaction
is an exothermic process. This means that, there is breaking of bonds and energy is taken
in to help in the breaking of the bond. The enthalpy change for this reaction is -97kJ. The
amount of energy associated with the bond is called the bond enthalpy and it is measured
in kilojoules per mole (kJ/mole). In the case of reaction Hydrogen and Nitrogen, the bond
that holds Hydrogen molecules together as an H2 molecule has a bonding enthalpy of
436kJ/mol. This can otherwise be said that breaking of the H2 bond requires into
individual Hydrogen atoms requires an energy input of 436 kJ. Besides, forming a
molecule of H2 from the atoms of Hydrogen molecules will release the same enthalpy of

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436kJ. Formation of stronger bonds requires more energy. Likewise, breaking of stronger
bonds requires high amount of energy or high enthalpy.
 Equilibrium constant equation;
In the manufacture of ammonia using the Haber process, Nitrogen is directly obtained
from the air while Hydrogen is gotten from natural gas. The two gases are pumped and
combined through pipes under a relatively high pressure of 200 Atmospheres. In most
chemical reactions, it is always expected that a stoichiometric reaction can be obtained
and that implies that the reaction can go up to completion.
A state of equilibrium simply states that both the forward reaction and the backward
reaction can be said to be equal. It is worth noting that there is no specific amount of
nutrients that can lead to an equilibrium state for any chemical reaction.
In the Haber process, the successive reaction of Hydrogen and Nitrogen largely depends
on the catalyst to increase the rate of the reaction because the Nitrogen triple bonds tend
to be stronger. The two main factors to put into considerations are the rate of the reaction
and the position of the equilibrium. Normally, at the room temperature the rate of
reaction is reduced, however the reaction equilibrium favors Ammonia. Because this type
of reaction is an exothermic reaction, the equilibrium constant becomes 302-392 ºF.
Decreasing the temperature lowers the effectiveness of the catalyst and this lowers the
rate of the reaction because the equilibrium is not achieved at this point. Besides, adding
more pressure does not favor the equilibrium because there is 4 moles against to moles in

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the reactant side. It is therefore important to maintain s lot of keenness in the pressure
being use. However, the mostly used pressure is of 200Atmospheres which in very
conversant.
 The collision theory concept;
The Collision Theory simply implies that a molecule collides against each other using the
minimum energy why pressure varies and temperature. In the Haber process, there’s the reacting
rather the combining of Nitrogen with Hydrogen. From the collision theory we can say that, the
molecules of Hydrogen collides with the molecules of Nitrogen and the faster the collide, the
faster the reaction. When pressure is increased to the maximum, this implies that the number of
molecules of both Nitrogen and Hydrogen per unit area is reduced that there is more effective
and successive colliding which lead to more production of ammonia. This justifies why the
Haber process requires use of high pressure of 200 atmospheres.
Moreover, collision theory works hand in hand with the temperature. Once the temperature is
increased, there is increased in the kinetic energy thus increase in the rate of collision and the
more the number of successful collisions the more the rate of reaction and thus the higher the
rate of ammonia being produced. In addition to that, the collision theory states that the molecules
of Hydrogen and Nitrogen must collide with a specific minimum energy which is normally
called the activation energy. Unless they use the specific activation energy, the molecules can
collide and probably remain unreacted.
 How is ammonia utilized in industries;

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Ammonia is highly utilized by various industries. Majorly, the Agriculture industry tops in
making use of Ammonia. Manufacturing of fertilizers requires Ammonia and can as well be
applied directly from tanks to the soils. Ammonia is the largest constituent in fertilizers in that
the Nitrogen used is highly used in fertilizer manufacturing. In the Agriculture industry,
Ammonia is as well used as a defoliant in the harvesting of cotton and even as a preserving agent
in the storage of harvested corn.
Besides, several other industries embrace the utilization of Ammonia such as the rubber industry,
the food and beverage industry, the leather industry, the pulp and paper industry and even in
sewage treatment industry. However, the highest amount of Ammonia is utilized by the
Agriculture industry.
 Effects of the Haber process to the environment;
There is however a number of effects of the Haber process to the surrounding and human
ecosystem. The use of fertilizer containing nitrogen has been of great benefit to the crops
altogether. However, the excess use of nitrogen fertilizers in the soils in the environment also has
many side effects which range from biodiversity and formation of marine algal brooms to
endangered quality of drinking water as well as air pollution leading to climate change.
With the increased demand for the ammonia in regard to desire of a sustainable future, there are
a number of alternative ways in which Ammonia can be produced. These are featured in the
following; energy resources, inorganic chemistry, thermodynamics, material science, fuel cells as
well as petroleum. With high rate of usage of the natural gases, there is need to search for
alternative ways of producing ammonia to ensure sustainability.

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 Difficulties encountered in the manufacture of Ammonia using the Haber process;
In the production of ammonia, there are some of the difficulties faced which include; for
synthesis of commercial ammonia production, more pressure is needed and increase in pressure
leads to increase in cost as the container vessels and pipes used are needed to be strong and
durable. Increase cost of production as demand increases is one of the major problems
encountered. There is also reduced supply of the natural gases which are nitrogen and hydrogen.
This is due to increase subtraction of both nitrogen and hydrogen from the atmosphere; this has
posed the threat of minimal circulation of Hydrogen and Nitrogen in the atmosphere. Besides,
commercial production of ammonia calls for skilled labor in that some management skills are
required for one to be able to successfully operate the Ammonia production (Haber process)
plant.

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