The Haber process (also Haber-Bosch process) The Haber process is important because ammonia is difficult to produce on an industrial scale. Even though 78.1% of the air we breathe is nitrogen, the gas is relatively unreactive because nitrogen molecules are held together by strong triple bonds. Ammonia was first manufactured using the Haber process on an industrial scale in Germany during World War I to meet the high demand for ammonium nitrate (for use in explosives) at a time when supply of Chile saltpetre from Chile could not be guaranteed because this industry was then almost 100% in British hands. It has been suggested that without this process, Germany would not have started the war
Home / Questions / What industrial process that consumes 3-5% of the world’s natural gas and 1-2% of the world’s annual energy supply is the reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen over an iron substrate to produce ammonia?