Question

a fertilizer manufacturer makes a batch of 20kg of ammonium nitrate. what mass of ammonia in kg, does the manufacturer need to start with?

Answer 1

Answer:

$m_{NH_3}=4.25kgNH_3$

Explanation:

Hello,

In this case, for the production of ammonium nitrate we shall consider the following chemical reaction:

$NH_3+HNO_3\rightarrow NH_4NO_3$

Hence, since the molar mass of ammonium nitrate is 80 g/mol and the molar mass of ammonia is 17 g/mol, we could compute the required mass of ammonia to produce 20 kg of ammonium nitrate  by using kilo-based units:

$m_{NH_3}=20kgNH_4NO_3*\frac{1kmol}{80kgNH_4NO_3}*\frac{1kmolNH_3}{1kmolNH_4NO_3}*\frac{17kgNH_3}{1kmolNH_3} \\\\m_{NH_3}=4.25kgNH_3$

Best regards.