{"id":377,"date":"2010-12-28T14:20:57","date_gmt":"2010-12-28T14:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/junq.info\/?p=377"},"modified":"2011-02-16T21:32:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T21:32:23","slug":"is-there-a-better-way-to-synthesize-nitrogen-compounds-on-an-industrial-scale-than-via-the-haber-bosch-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/junq.info\/?p=377","title":{"rendered":"Is there a better way to synthesize nitrogen compounds on an industrial scale than via the Haber-Bosch process?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Question of the Week, 28.12.2010<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Molecular nitrogen is known to be chemically almost inert as it is held  together by a strong triple bond. Nonetheless, nitrogen compounds play a  crucial role in many commercial processes, e.g., they are essential for  the production of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and explosives. For  almost 100 years now, the main access to nitrogen compounds is provided  by the reduction of molecular nitrogen to ammonia via the Haber-Bosch  process, which was considered a revolution at the time of its invention  and is still one of the most important large-scale chemical processes.<\/p>\n<p>However, many people in science and industry wonder if the time is ripe  for another revolution. The Haber-Bosch process requires temperatures of  400-550\u00b0C and pressures of 200-300 bar while biological nitrogen  fixation takes place at room temperature and pressure with the aid of  the nitrogenase enzyme. This fact raises the question if catalytic  assistance may be able to drastically lower the insurmountable  activation barrier for the formation of ammonia from molecular nitrogen  in the industrial process as well. Much research has been conducted on  the exploration of the nitrogenase enzyme and the discovery of new  catalysts for nitrogen fixation but all novel reactions in this field  are far away from being used on a large scale.<\/p>\n<p>Further reading:<\/p>\n<p>Catalysts for Nitrogen Fixation: Nitrogenases, Relevant Chemical Models  and Commercial Processes,<\/p>\n<p>edited by: B. E. Smith, R. L. Richards, and W. E. Newton, Springer, 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Jagau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Molecular nitrogen is known to be chemically almost inert as it is held together by a strong triple bond. Nonetheless, nitrogen compounds play a crucial role in many commercial processes. (Question of the Week, 28.12.2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}