Ammonia, Nitric Acid and their Derivatives

Early samples of ammonia were obtained by such means as the bacterial action on the urea present in urine (Equation 9.1), or by the dry distillation (9.1)$$ H2N - CO - N{H_2} + {H_2}O\xrightarrow{{bacteria}}\,C{O_2} + 2N{H_3} $$ of protein-containing substances such as bone, horns, and hides. Small amounts were also obtained from the manufacture of coke or coal gas from coals. Ammonia is still recovered at the rate of 134,000 tonnes per year as an incidental part of U.S. coal-based operations [1,2], but this amounts to less than 1% of current U.S. ammonia production (Table 9.1). By far the bulk of ammonia produced today is by the direct combination of the elements. Other synthetic processes have been tested and found to be either impractical for commercial exploitation, or have gradually been supplanted by direct elemental combination for economic reasons.