Javison Guzman Fr. Sean Ocier, S.J. 1. Who developed the Haber and Contact processes? When?

What country were they from? The Haber Process was largely developed by a German chemist named Fritz Haber, who received a significant amount of help from Carl Bosch in making the process applicable for large-scale industrial use. Fritz Haber developed the Haber process early in the 20th century, and his process of creating ammonia was first publicly demonstrated in 1909. The Contact Process on the other hand was developed by a British merchant named Peregrine Philips. This process was developed in the early 18th century and it was patented by its Philips in 1831. 2. Write a brief background on what each process is used for? Comment more on its significance in industry and/or the economy. The Haber Process is used to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen gas. This was a great advancement since prior to this, ammonia had to be harvested from natural deposits in remote regions of the world. Ammonia ha many industrial uses, chief among which would be its use in the manufacture of fertilizers, which generally help increase crop yield and help meet the global food demand. Also, ammonia is heavily used by the military and weapons and manufacturers in the production of conventional explosives. The Contact Process is used to create sulphuric acid in high concentrations by synthesizing elemental sulphur, water and air. The Contact Process is mainly used to create sulphuric acid, which in turn is used in several industrial processes, such as the removal of rust from steel and the synthesis of various chemical products, such as phosphoric acid and aluminum sulfate. 3. Write a balanced chemical equation for the reaction found in the Haber processes, including the energy term. Is it an endothermic or exothermic reaction? For the Contact process, write down the chemical equation of the reversible reaction that is present. Haber Process: N2 (g) + 3 H2 (g) 2 NH3 (g) Exothermic Reaction (due to negative heat flow resulting from the creation of bonds between reactants) Contact Process 2 SO2(g) + O2(g) 2 SO3(g)

Exothermic Reaction (due to negative heat flow resulting from the creation of bonds between reactants.

4. Use Le Chtaliers Principle to explain the conditions that favour the forward reaction. Temperature is important in regulating this reaction. Is the reaction carried out at high or low temperatures? Since the Haber process is a exothermic reaction, increasing the temperature will yield a lower quantities of product, since doing this will tend to favor the reverse process wherein the reactants are created from the products of the forward reaction. So instead of altering temperature, the best condition that will favor the forward reaction would be increasing the pressure of the system. Since the overall volume of the products is significantly less than that of the reactants, increasing the pressure can be seen to move equilibrium towards the side of the reactants, thereby increasing the quantity synthesized from the reaction. In the Contact process, increasing the concentration of oxygen makes the position of equilibrium shift very strongly towards the right and a high percentage of the sulfur dioxide is converted ot sulfur trioxide. But then this also decreases the total amount of sulfur dioxide made per reaction, so as a result a ratio of 1 molecule of sulfur dioxide to 1 molecule of oxygen will produce the optimum yield. 5. How does this relate to part of your answer for Question 3? In relation to the answer in question 3, it can be seen that increasing the temperatures of either of the two reactions will not result in a higher yield of product, since both of these chemical reactions can be seen to be exothermic. 6. Under what temperature and pressure conditions are these reactions typically carried out? Haber: Lower Temperature (just enough for the reaction with the catalyst to proceed/optimum temperature; approximately 350-450 degrees celsius) and a high pressure (150-250 atm) Contact: Lower Temperature (just enough for the reaction with the catalyst to proceed/ optimum temperature; approximately 400-450 degrees celsius) and a relatively higher pressure (2 atm) 7. What catalyst is used for each reaction? Haber: Iron Catalyst with Potassium Hydroxide Contact: Vanadium Oxide

After answering this, make a cost analysis plan to see the most ideal setup for the Haber and Contact processes to happen in the Philippines. For example, would it be beneficial in our country to have more product yield of ammonia by setting up a costly and sophisticated instrument that would allow reactions to happen at very high pressures? Will more raw materials be worth more than changing the optimum temperature to be able to get a higher yield? I will have your proposals viewed by Mr. Garcia to check the validity of your claims from the business perspective. It can be seen that investing in the sophisticated machinery needed to synthesize ammonium and sulphuric acid through the Haber and Contact processes will be more cost effective than using high volumes of stock to create a higher yield with a lot of wastage. Even though investing in the machinery will significantly increase the fixed cost of the business, it can be seen that the business will be able to benefit from cost reductions due to the maximization of the present stock to create the optimum amount of product. Furthermore, using a standardized process (through the machine) will help the business come up with a steady supply of ammonia and sulphuric acid with a set standard of quality, thereby making it more competitive since it is able to keep up with demand and meet market expectations for the product. Finally, it can be seen that utilizing a machine is more efficient than experimenting with the quantity of materials used or the temperature used since it will save the business much time and resources in developing its product.