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why is there no waste when ammonia is formed?
Trying to revise for chemistry and came across this question, then realised I had no clue how to answer. It says to explain this in terms of atoms, can someone help me?
1 Answer
- Bob BLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
Ammonia is usually made industrially in the "Haber Process", which combines nitrogen and hydrogen to make ammonia:
3H2 + N2 -> 2NH3
Now, in practice, this reaction never goes to completion- you'll make some ammonia, but under any realistic conditions you'll also have plenty of nitrogen and hydrogen left over. In fact, in most real ammoina factories, only about 30% of or so of the N2 and H2 actually gets converted to ammonia. The rest is unreacted.
However, once that's finished, it's pretty easy to just extract the ammonia out, leaving just the unreacted hydrogen and nitrogen. You can then simply start the reaction again, and make more ammonia (usually factories will add new hydrogen and nitrogen as well to increase the yield).
So in that respect, no waste is formed. In reality, though, all ammonia factories actually produce waste- equipment eventually wears out, and there are chemical catalysts use in the reaction that eventually need to be replaced. Also, in most cases, the hydrogen is produced by breakdown of chemicals like methanol, which also produces waste.
