The Haber process

Haber Process

The Haber process must, as any process have a principle to form the idea. In Haber’s case LeChateliers’s principle works nicely. LeChatelier’s principle says that if something is changed in a chemical balance where equilibrium has been achieved then the equilibrium will shift so that equilibrium may be kept. This may create more products or more reactants depending on which side has something changed.

The history of why Haber needed to make his own process dates back to World War 1 in Germany. The problem with Germany is that they have very few natural resources and unfortunately sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate aren’t any of them. Sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate are used in the creation of nitrogen which is then used in conjunction with hydrogen to create ammonia. This is then used for explosives. This is one of those things that they needed to make war on other countries. The allies made a blockade of Europe and Germany couldn’t get ...