Gems Wellington Academy Silicon Oasis

Q1.The graph in Figure 1 shows a flow diagram for the Haber process.

Figure 1

(a)     (i)      Hydrogen gas is obtained from methane.

Name one source of methane.

Landfills

(ii)     Air is the source used to produce nitrogen for the Haber process.
Suggest why air must not get into the reactor.

Air contains oxygen that will oxidise the hydrogen. This would react with the
iron. Hence air shouldn’t get into the reactor.

(iii)     Describe what happens to the mixture of gases from the reactor.

                        Hydrogen and nitrogen from the air enters the reactor. In the reactor,
they mix up with the iron catalyst, that speeds up the reaction. This then
forms ammonia which enters the condenser. The ammonia condenses
and is extracted out of the condenser whereas the unreacted hydrogen
and nitrogen once again enter the reactor.
(3)

(b)     The graph in Figure 2 shows the percentage yield of ammonia using different
conditions.

Figure 2

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 Gems Wellington Academy Silicon Oasis

(i) Use Figure 2 to suggest the conditions that produce the greatest yield of
ammonia.

400 C
(1)

(ii) Use Figure 2 to suggest and explain why the conditions used to produce
ammonia in the Haber process are a temperature of 450 °C and a pressure
of 200 atmospheres.
Increasing the pressure of the reaction increases the yield of ammonia.
However, if the pressure is made too high, the equipment needed to safely
contain the reaction becomes very expensive. Increasing the temperature
of the reaction actually decreases the yield of ammonia in the reaction. This
means that we could get a bigger yield of ammonia with a lower
temperature. However, if the temperature is too low, the rate of the reaction
would be so slow that it would take too long to make the ammonia. Hence,
the right conditions are 450 C and 200 atmospheres.

(5)
(Total 12 marks)

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