Ammonia and Nitric Acid

Last week’s blog post covered the usage of ammonia in the agricultural industry, today we will discuss some other uses of ammonia in industry. Ammonia is used in the manufacture of nitric acid certain alkalis such as soda ash; dyes; pharmaceuticals such as sulfa drugs, vitamins and cosmetics; synthetic textile fibers such as nylon, rayon and acrylics; and for the manufacture of certain plastics such as phenolics and polyurethanes. 

There is so many uses of Nitric Acid, think of a product and it most likely utilizes nitric acid in one way or another. Another interesting use of nitric acid is that it is used in the aerospace industry as a rocket propellent, it used to be the most popular rocket fuel during the cold war. It is not as common nowadays as better alternatives have presented themselves. Nitric acid is also used in explosive manufacture such as TNT. TNT is commonly used in the military, industrial, and mining applications. In the mining application it is used to clear mines and allow access to the precious ores miners are seeking. In the oil and gas industry, it is used in conjunction with hydraulic fracking to also allow access to the gasses hidden deep below the surface. The value behind TNT is that it has a low sensitivity to shock and friction lowering chances of accidental detonation.

For a more in depth look into the uses of ammonia visit www.ammoniapro.com  

Stay tuned for next week’s post where we will dive into the history and future of ammonia, how it has changed the world as we know starting from the first time we utilized ammonia to how scientists and researches project ammonia will be used in our hopeful environmentally green future.