Question

Le Chatelier’s principle describes how chemical equilibriums respond to changes in the concentrations of reactants or products. Think about how you can use Le Chatelier’s principle to find possible solutions to the design problem. Describe at least two ways to increase the yield (amount) of ammonia based on this principle.Imagine that you’re working for a company as a chemical engineer. Your task is to design a factory for producing ammonia. Ammonia is in high demand because many farmers use ammonia-based fertilizers to grow crops.Ammonia is produced when nitrogen reacts with hydrogen. This reaction occurs slowly at room temperature. Here is the chemical equation:N2 + 3H2 ⇌ 2NH3 + energyAiming to increase the speed of this reaction, you decide to test it at a higher temperature. So, you build a prototype of a reaction chamber to test the reaction at 300°C. You find that only 20% of the nitrogen and hydrogen have been converted to ammonia after the system has reached chemical equilibrium.At this rate, a lot of nitrogen and hydrogen will be wasted, which will increase production costs. To make the factory cost-efficient, you must be able to convert the maximum possible amount of nitrogen and hydrogen to ammonia, using as little nitrogen and hydrogen as possible. You also need to produce the ammonia at a faster rate to increase profits.

Answer 1

A decrease in temperature

Continual removal of the product

Step-by-step explanation

Given reaction;

`\text{ N}_2\text{ }+\text{ 3H}_2\text{ }\rightleftarrows\text{ 2NH}_3\text{ }+\text{ energy}`

The reaction above indicates an exothermic reaction. This is because energy is released to the surroundings during the reaction.

Le Chatelier's principle states that when an external constraints such as pressure, temperature, concentration, etc. are imposed on a chemical system in equilibrium, the equilibrium arrow shift so as to annul the effect of the constraints.

To increase the yield of ammonia, we need to reduce the temperature supplied to the system. This is because the production of ammonia from direct combination of nitrogen and hydrogen is an exothermic reaction. So, the more temperature applied to the system, the more the energy that will be released to the surroundings thereby wasting the reacting particles.

So, a decrease in the temperature of the system will shift the arrow to the right, and this will favor the production of ammonia

Another factor that can increase the production of ammonia is the continual removal of ammonia during the production.

Since the reaction is a reversible reaction, the more you remove the product the more the reactants react to form more product , and this will favors the production of ammonia