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Name ____________________________
Class __________
Date __________
Teacher____________________________
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AMMONIA AND FERTILISERS
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NITROGEN CHEMISTRY
INTRODUCTION
ABOUT NITROGEN
Nitrogen was discovered by chemist and
physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772.
Watch the following clip showing a banana and apple being dipped into
liquid nitrogen. Click on picture.
Google Image Result for
http://www.ilpi.com/genchem/demo/liquidnitrogen/nitrogenintro.jpg
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Nitrogen fixation happens in three main ways:
1. The energy in a lightening bolt can split the nitrogen molecule in
the air allowing each nitrogen atom to react with oxygen to form
nitrogen oxides. These oxides are washed to the ground by the
rain where they form nitrates.
2. The Haber Process is used by industry to produce ammonia from
nitrogen. Ammonia is used to make fertiliser for farmers to feed
their crops.
3. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria found in the soil and in the root nodules
of leguminous plants fix nitrogen into a usable form.
Other ways in which nitrogen compounds are returned to the soil are by
excretion and egestion from animals or when plants and animals die
and decay.
HISTORY
The HABER PROCESS is a method of producing ammonia
developed in WWI. The Germans needed nitrogen for
making their explosives.
When the Allies blocked off all trade routes going to and
fron Germany, they lost all source of sodium nitrate and
potassium nitrate, their source of nitrogen.
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The Germans found their source of
nitrogen from the air, which is 80%
nitrogen. The Chemist FRITZ HABER
developed the Haber Process. The
Haber Process takes nitrogen from the
air and combines it with hydrogen to
form ammonia NH3 during a
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A low temperature
Too high a pressure however would make the reaction vessel
expensive to build and the process more dangerous. A
compromise pressure of 200 atmospheres is therefore used.
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Advantages of Fertilisers
Disadvantages of fertilisers
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Some more tests!
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END OF SUMMARY SHEETS
Nitrogen Questions
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8. Give three ways in which nitrogen can be converted
into a useable form by plants (nitrogen fixation):
a.________________________________________
_________________________________________
b.________________________________________
_________________________________________
c.________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Fertiliser
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_______________________________________
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Ammonia
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Ammonium hydroxide
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Sulphuric/Nitric acid
_______________________________________
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Ammonium sulphate/nitrate
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REACTION CONDITIONS
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12. From the graph below you will see that the reaction
conditions actually used in the production of ammonia do not
give the greatest yield of ammonia.
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ii. Increasing the temperature of gases in the Haber Process
(increases/decreases) ______________ the yield of ammonia
produced.
Results obtained from the graph and multimedia science school may be different.
This is because the graph in not particularly accurate. This exercise is simply to
check that you can read a graph.
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13. So if the reaction conditions used do
not give the greatest yield of ammonia why
dont they use a higher pressure and lower
temperature in the Haber process?! Write
your answers below.
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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Using ammonia produced in the HABER PROCESS to make
FERTILISERS.
Neutralisation - a reaction of an
acid with a base forming a salt and
water.
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Making ammonium sulphate fertiliser from ammonia
solution and sulphuric acid
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Plan draw relevant equipment with a pencil and a ruler next to each step in the correct order.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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____________ + ______________ ___________ + ________
WORD EQUATION
CHEMICAL EQUATION
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Fertilisers
Fertilisers can be natural, such as manure and
sewage sludge, or artificial, such as ammonium
nitrate. Nutrients from fertilisers can get washed into
rivers and leach into underground water sources.
Algae remove oxygen from the water, which makes it difficult for
other plants and animals to get enough oxygen to survive.
Blue baby syndrome is a rare but sometimes fatal disease that occurs primarily during the first four months of life.
Symptoms include a blue discoloration of the lips, nose, and ears. Other symptoms include crying, vomiting and
diarrhoea.
It can be caused by a chemical called nitrate sometimes found at unsafe levels in tap water that is used to mix
powdered formula.
Extract from a Broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK, 1997 The tyranny of environmentalists
'In the United States, 'we use less land to produce more food than we used 50 years ago. We're able to use less land
precisely because of chemical fertilisers and some of the very sophisticated techniques that we have. That allows you to
preserve more land for wildlife habitat, for open space, for forests and other purposes.
'If you look at Africa, where they use very primitive agricultural techniques, which means they have to use very large
amounts of land - that reduces the amount of land for endangered species like elephants and lions and tigers. It's also
usually very bad agriculture - there's more soil erosion. So the environmental benefits of chemical fertilisers are really
quite high.'
Describe
'It flies in the face of greenthe test
theology,' addsand
Dennisthe result
Avery, ofthethe
Director of Centretest to Food
for Global identify the
Issues, 'but man-made
chemicals today are helping to give us the most productive, most sustainable farming in the history of the planet. The best
yields, thepresence of earthworms,
best soils, the more an ammonium salt?
the most soil bacteria, the most food for people, the most land left for wildlife -
all of it being achieved because of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, weedkillers.'
Of course ______________________________________________
the climate in Africa is not as friendly to agriculture as it is in the Western world. However, scientists argue that
with high-yield farming and irrigation Africa could feed itself many times over. The problem is not overpopulation, they
Teacher Demo
______________________________________________
say, it is backward farming techniques.
______________________________________________
Describe the test and the result of the test to identify the
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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