What about the Haber process?

Question

This is my last question about chemistry for this year; my exam is on thursday so please tell me briefly about the Haber process. Ok, I understand it's the reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen to produce ammonia ... ok we got it but who cares? Why is the explanation so long for the Haber process?

I need to understand this for my exam thanks =)

K, so I'm reading about the Haber process in my text and there's about 5 billion pages about it... ok I'm exaggerating but atleast 4 billion pages about it and I still don't see how it's important O_O

Answer 1

Hopefully you wont DELETE the question when I answer it this time !

1) Ammonia is VERY useful, especially for making fertilizer as well as acids.

2) It has more moles of gas on the left than the right so equilibrium favours high pressure (expensive)

Answer 2

The Haber Process (also known as Haber–Bosch process) is the reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen to produce ammonia.

Even though 78.1% of the air we breathe is nitrogen, the gas is relatively inert due to the strength of the triple bond that keeps the molecule together. It was not until the start of the twentieth century that this method was developed to harness the atmospheric abundance of nitrogen to create ammonia, which can then be oxidised to make the nitrates and nitrites essential for the production of nitrate fertilizer and munitions.

In the Haber Process, nitrogen (N2) and hydrogen (H2) gases are reacted over an iron catalyst (Fe3+) in which aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and potassium oxide (K2O) are used as promoters. The reaction is carried out under conditions of 250 atmospheres (atm), 450-500°C; resulting in a yield of 10-20%:

N2(g) + 3H2(g) → 2NH3(g) + ΔHo = -92.4 kJ/mol
(Where ΔHo is the standard heat of reaction or standard enthalpy change)

These conditions are chosen due to the high reaction rate which they foster, despite the poor relative amount of ammonia produced

Answer 3

The Haber process is important because it is the main process to make ammonia for fertilizers. The major use of ammonia is in agriculture and production of grains. Imagine the food supplies of the world if we had less fertilizer, or if fertilizer were more costly and difficult to produce. Obviously ammonia has other uses, but the Haber process was a breakthrough for the agriculture business.

Answer 4

The Haber process was very important for Germany (and the world) because it enabled them to make nitrate based explosives without being dependant on foreign sources of nitrates. The development of the best catalysts, optimum temperatures and pressures and feed rate and product removal became classic studies for chemical reaction rates. Required reading for the industrial chemists.