Ammonia changed the 20th century even more than television, electricity and computers. As a fertiliser ammonia has extended food production for billions of people, but as an explosive it has resulted in killing over 150 million people.
Ammonia is a very useful chemical that is used all around the world. To this day over 150 million metric tonnes of ammonia is produced, 80% of which is used in agriculture, 5% explosives, 10% fibres and 5% other. Ammonia is usually known to be used in; refrigerant gas,purification of water supplies,the manufacture of plastics,explosives,textiles,pesticides,dyes and other chemicals. Ammonia is also found and used in many different household and industrial-strength cleaning solutions. Hundreds of years ago there was no such thing as shopping centres or places to buy food, everything was either hand made or home grown. Ammonia made the lives of people easier as it was used in fertilisers which increased crop yields. Without synthetic ammonia fertilisers, the world would be unable to grow enough food to feed the population. Ammonia has made our lives easier as a key ingredient in many household cleaning products. Ammonia is very useful for cleaning glass, surfaces, tiles and ovens. Products like these are helpful in daily life cutting through grease and grime easily. Aromatic ammonia spirit is used in medicine to prevent fainting when the strong smell is passed quickly under the nose. Ammonia is also used in the mining industry for explosives and in processing minerals. For example, the Ranger uranium mine, in the Northern Territory, uses an ammonium sulphate solution in the processing of uranium ore to convert into a uranium oxide product (yellowcake). This product is then used to fuel nuclear energy in other countries around the world. Ammonia is also used in mines as an explosive in open pits to remove the surface layers of soil and rock and mine the ore body. |
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