Monitoring and Management > 2. Maximising Production >
Identify and describe the industrial uses of ammonia
- Ammonia is a very important industrial chemical, and is used widely in both its pure form and as a feedstock for a wide variety of other chemicals.
- Ammonia ranks second behind sulfuric acid in the quantity produced worldwide per year.
- Ammonia itself is used:
- As a fertiliser.
- In many alkaline cleansers, such as window and floor cleaners.
- As a refrigerant gas.
- Ammonia is used in the manufacture of:
- Fertilisers, such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, ammonium hydrogen phosphate, and urea.
- Nitric acid, which is used to manufacture:
- Ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
- Dyes.
- Fibres and plastics.
- Explosives, such as ammonium nitrate, trinitrotoluene (TNT) and nitroglycerine.
- Cyanides, which are used to:
- Manufacture synthetic polymers, such as nylon and acrylics.
- Extract gold from ore bodies.
The uses of ammonia, by percentage