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Adeeb Hoque - Assignment 2 - Plan An Experiment
Adeeb Hoque - Assignment 2 - Plan An Experiment
Adeeb Hoque - Assignment 2 - Plan An Experiment
● The catalyst: The catalyst is actually slightly more complicated than pure iron. It has
potassium hydroxide added to it as a promoter - a substance that increases its
efficiency.
● The pressure: The pressure varies from one manufacturing plant to another, but is
always high. You cannot go far wrong in an exam quoting 200 atmospheres.
● Recycling: At each pass of the gases through the reactor, only about 15% of the
nitrogen and hydrogen converts to ammonia. (This figure also varies from plant to plant.)
By continual recycling of the unreacted nitrogen and hydrogen, the overall conversion is
about 98%.
SAFETY MEASURES
○ Temperature and pressure, which need to be kept in a range that will
provide optimum efficiency (excessive temperatures can damage the
catalyst).
○ Oxygen, which needs to be kept absent from the reaction vessel in order
to avoid risk of explosion.
○ Carbon monoxide and sulfur compounds, which can poison the catalyst.
○ Unreactive gases such as methane and argon, which can reduce
efficiency in large quantities.
○ The ratio of hydrogen gas to nitrogen gas, which needs to be kept at 3:1
(the correct stoichiometric ratio) in order to avoid the build-up of one gas.
○ Much of this monitoring is performed automatically with the supervision of chemical
engineers and industrial chemists.