Monday, August 23, 2010

Why is the price of amonium nitrate linked to the price of oil and natural gas? (for chemistry class)?

Because natural gas and oil are sources of hydrogen:





CH4 + O2 ===%26gt; 2H2 + CO





Hydrogen reacts with nitrogen of the air in the Haber-Bosch process to form ammonia:





N2 + 3H2 ===%26gt; 2NH3





Ammonia is oxidized to nitric acid in the Ostwald process:





NH3 + 2O2 ===%26gt; HNO3 + H2O





And ammonia reacts with nitric acid to form ammoium nitrate:





NH3 + HNO3 ===%26gt; NH4NO3

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