Industrial Production of Fertilisers

Key Stage 4

The industrial production of fertilisers is the set of processes used in industry to produce fertilisers for use in agriculture.

The industrial production of fertiliers requires several steps before the end products can be sold.

Industrial production of fertilisers differs from the small scale production of chemicals in the laboratory.

Laboratory Process	Industrial Process
The chemicals needed for a reaction, such as Sulphuric Acid or Nitric Acid are bought.	The chemicals needed for a reaction, such as Sulphuric Acid and Nitric Acid must themselves be produced first. Raw materials must be extracted first then turned into reactants before being used.
The reactants are already in known quantities and concentrations.	The reactants must be purified first and their concentrations carefully controlled before placing them in the reaction vessel.
The temperatures used in reactions are usually very low to the rate of reaction may be slow.	The reaction vessels can be kept at very high temperatures to improve the rate of reaction. The thermal energy generated from one chemical reaction can be used to heat another chemical reaction.
The pressures used in reactions are usually very low so reversible reactions cannot have their equilibrium position controlled.	The reaction vessels can be kept at very high pressures to control the equilibrium position in reversible reactions.
The concentrations of chemicals are kept very low for safety reasons.	The concentrations of chemicals can be very high as the reaction vessels are sealed.
Collection of the product may be slow using simple separating techniques such as evaporation of solutions (crystallisation).	Product can be constantly collected and separated to ensure purity.