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How is hydrogen prepared for industrial ammonia production?
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ammonia
Ammonia and amines have a slightly flattened trigonal pyramidal shape with a lone pair of electrons above the nitrogen. In quaternary ammonium ions, this area is occupied by a fourth substituent.
For industrial ammonia production, hydrogen is primarily obtained by decomposing water or by extracting it directly from fossil fuels. The most common industrial methods include:1
- Catalytic steam-hydrocarbon process: This is the most important industrial method, where gaseous or vaporized hydrocarbons—often methane—are treated with steam at high pressure over a nickel catalyst at temperatures between 650° and 950° C.23
- Partial oxidation of hydrocarbons: This noncatalytic process involves the reaction of hydrocarbons with oxygen under elevated pressures.2
- Water-gas reaction: Historically, hydrogen was produced by passing steam over red-hot coke (carbon) to yield water gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This can be further processed via the water-gas shift reaction, where the mixture is passed with additional steam over a catalyst to produce more hydrogen and carbon dioxide.21
- Electrolysis: Small amounts of hydrogen are also produced through the electrolysis of aqueous solutions.2
Once prepared, this hydrogen is combined with nitrogen in the Haber-Bosch process to synthesize ammonia.456