The Haber process
In modern society mankind relies on industrial chemistry processes. This industrial chemistry process is known as “The Haber Process” it is responsible for the production of the compound ammonia; which is accountable for the world’s consumption of natural gas (BBC, 2014).
The Haber process is the method of synthesizing the compound of ammonia which is produced from Hydrogen (H2) and Nitrogen (N2) gas (Sinha, 2014). In 1909 a German named Fritz Haber developed the compound of ammonia, thus The “Haber” process was named after the physical chemist (AUS-e-TUTE, 2014). In 1918 Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize for this method; in turn the manufacturing of ammonia became economically possible (May, 1999). The Haber process …show more content…
Le Chetalier’s principle mentions that when the pressure is increased, the position of the equilibrium is moved to the right, which results in ammonia with a higher yield, this is because the left hand side of the equation occupies more gas molecules. The increase of pressure means that the effect of change is reduced; this is because there are fewer molecules, which reduces pressure. The higher the pressure increases the concentration of gas molecules, which in turn speeds up the reaction (Brown, 2000). When the temperature is decreased the position of equilibrium is moved to the right, which also results in more ammonia with a higher yield, as heat is released in this equation this is a exothermic reaction (AUS-e-TUTE, 2014) this change of heat in a system is known as enthalpy. The reaction is exothermic as the reaction favors the low temperature. More ammonia gas is produced because the reduction of temperature minuses the effect of change, and will produce more heat as it is the product of the reaction (BBC, 2014). Though lower temperatures have an extremely slow rate of reaction, to speed up the reaction for ammonia, manufacturers then must increase to a higher temperature; which in turn results in ammonia with lower yield (Sinha, 2014) although the optimum temperature around 450ºC is not a low …show more content…
In ammonia, reducing the activation energy is caused by using an iron catalyst to speed up the reaction, with the lowered activation energy, the bonds of N_2 and H_2 are able to be additionally readily separated (AUS-e-TUTE, 2014). Molecules are more reactant with increased temperature; these reactant molecules have sufficient energy to over come the activation energy, thus at higher temperatures the reaction is faster (but still lower yield of ammonia as said above) (chemgeneration, 2011). The yield of ammonia produced is 10-20% within the temperature range around 450 oC. The conversion of nitrogen and hydrogen to ammonia is 100% transformed at the temperature of 200 oC and the pressure above 750 atmospheres. Industrial manufacturers have difficulty in containing high-pressure materials, so they instead minimize safety concerns of operations by the use of low pressures of 200 atmospheres and a temperature of 500 oC (Modak,
In modern society mankind relies on industrial chemistry processes. This industrial chemistry process is known as “The Haber Process” it is responsible for the production of the compound ammonia; which is accountable for the world’s consumption of natural gas (BBC, 2014).
The Haber process is the method of synthesizing the compound of ammonia which is produced from Hydrogen (H2) and Nitrogen (N2) gas (Sinha, 2014). In 1909 a German named Fritz Haber developed the compound of ammonia, thus The “Haber” process was named after the physical chemist (AUS-e-TUTE, 2014). In 1918 Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize for this method; in turn the manufacturing of ammonia became economically possible (May, 1999). The Haber process …show more content…
Le Chetalier’s principle mentions that when the pressure is increased, the position of the equilibrium is moved to the right, which results in ammonia with a higher yield, this is because the left hand side of the equation occupies more gas molecules. The increase of pressure means that the effect of change is reduced; this is because there are fewer molecules, which reduces pressure. The higher the pressure increases the concentration of gas molecules, which in turn speeds up the reaction (Brown, 2000). When the temperature is decreased the position of equilibrium is moved to the right, which also results in more ammonia with a higher yield, as heat is released in this equation this is a exothermic reaction (AUS-e-TUTE, 2014) this change of heat in a system is known as enthalpy. The reaction is exothermic as the reaction favors the low temperature. More ammonia gas is produced because the reduction of temperature minuses the effect of change, and will produce more heat as it is the product of the reaction (BBC, 2014). Though lower temperatures have an extremely slow rate of reaction, to speed up the reaction for ammonia, manufacturers then must increase to a higher temperature; which in turn results in ammonia with lower yield (Sinha, 2014) although the optimum temperature around 450ºC is not a low …show more content…
In ammonia, reducing the activation energy is caused by using an iron catalyst to speed up the reaction, with the lowered activation energy, the bonds of N_2 and H_2 are able to be additionally readily separated (AUS-e-TUTE, 2014). Molecules are more reactant with increased temperature; these reactant molecules have sufficient energy to over come the activation energy, thus at higher temperatures the reaction is faster (but still lower yield of ammonia as said above) (chemgeneration, 2011). The yield of ammonia produced is 10-20% within the temperature range around 450 oC. The conversion of nitrogen and hydrogen to ammonia is 100% transformed at the temperature of 200 oC and the pressure above 750 atmospheres. Industrial manufacturers have difficulty in containing high-pressure materials, so they instead minimize safety concerns of operations by the use of low pressures of 200 atmospheres and a temperature of 500 oC (Modak,