Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3)

Ammonia (NH3) is a pungent, colorless, toxic gas more commonly referred to as anhydrous ammonia. When ammonia is used in combination with carbon dioxide to create urea, it is the building block chemical for many agricultural fertilizers. Until the end of the nineteenth century, just about all fertilizers were organic in the modern sense.  They were  obtained from composting agricultural, animal and human waste. As the world population got larger, so did its need to feed itself. Lots of years of slash and burn agriculture, along with harvesting the same crops in the same fields for decades had led to severe soil depletion. Imported guano was getting expensive as crops yields were falling.

Haber’s process of directly combining nitrogen and hydrogen to create ammonia gave birth to an entire synthetic fertilizer industry in Europe and North America. Once good quality, abundant and inexpensive ammonia became available, in addition to agricultural chemicals, a original synthetic dye industry developed, as well as the first successful automatic document duplication process.

In our time most world-scale ammonia is created and directly consumed in the agriculture industries. Cylinder quantities of Anhydrous 99.99% Pure Ammonia are also used in agricultural and fertilizer research, metal treatment, wastewater treatment and pharmaceuticals, and when mixed with water to create aqueous ammonia, in cleaning products. Ultra High Purity Ammonia, 99.999% is used as a blending component in calibration gases for emission and personal hygiene monitoring, as well as some specialty semiconductor manufacturing.

Springfield customers looking for a reliable, local source to produce ammonia specialty gases should contact ILMO Products Company. Their strong record of service in the area coupled with the backing from PurityPlus® Specialty Gases makes giving them an easy decision.