Uses of Ammonia

The major end use of ammonia is the fertilizer field for the production of urea, ammonium nitrate and ammonium phosphate, and sulfate. Anhydrous ammonia could be directly applied to the soil as a fertilizer.  Urea is gaining wide acceptance as a slow-acting fertilizer. Ammonia is the precursor for many other chemicals such as nitric acid, hydrazine, acrylonitrile, and hexamethylenediamine. Ammonia, having three hydrogen atoms per molecule, may be viewed as an energy source. It has been proposed that anhydrous liquid ammonia may be used as a clean fuel for the automotive industry. Compared with hydrogen, anhydrous ammonia is more manageable. It is stored in iron or steel containers and could be transported commercially via pipeline, railroad tanker cars, and highway tanker trucks. The oxidation reaction could be represented as:

Only nitrogen and water are produced. However, many factors must be considered such as the coproduction of nitrogen oxides, the economics related to retrofitting of auto engines, etc. The following describes the important chemicals based on ammonia.