Aim: To indicate
the important sectors in which ammonia is utilized and the relative importance of these
sectors in the world production of NH3
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Ammonia is a colourless gas at room
temperature with a strong penetrating smell and a boiling point of -33.5 °C.
It is a readily compressible gas, a pressure of 10 bar at room temperature being
sufficient to make it liquid for transportation purposes.
Once liquid, ammonia requires much energy to vaporize it (233 kJ/mol). This property is
utilized in cooling installations. Ammonia is also readily soluble in water (see also
illustration E16). At 20 °C its solubility in water is 30 mol/L and at 0 °C 53 mol/L.
Thus ammonia is usually supplied as an aqueous solution. 25 % solutions (13.3 mol/L with a
relative density of 0.91) are used in chemical laboratories.
89.5 % of ammonia is used in the production of artificial fertilizer in which it is
present as ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulphate, ammonium hydrogen phosphate, carbamide, or
urea (NH2)2CO. Ammonia is also utilized in the production of Nylon®
(7.5 %) and explosives (2.5 %), as a solvent and as a refrigerant in industrial cooling
installations and for ice rinks (0.5 %).
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