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Nitrification is important in agricultural systems, where fertilizer is often applied as ammonia. Conversion of this ammonia to nitrate increases nitrogen leaching because nitrate is more water-soluble than ammonia. Nitrification also plays an important role in the removal of nitrogen from municipal wastewater.
Since urea is not an oxidizer at standard temperature and pressure, it is safer to handle and less of a security risk than other common nitrogen fertilizers, such as ammonium nitrate. However, if urea is applied to the soil surface, a meaningful fraction of applied fertilizer nitrogen may be lost to the atmosphere as ammonia gas; this only ...
Urea nitrate is produced in one step by reaction of urea with nitric acid. This is an exothermic reaction, so steps must be taken to control the temperature. It was discovered in 1797 by William Cruickshank, [4] inventor of the Chloralkali process. Urea nitrate explosions may be initiated using a blasting cap. [3]
The structure of the molecule of urea is O=C(−NH 2) 2.The urea molecule is planar when in a solid crystal because of sp 2 hybridization of the N orbitals. [8] [9] It is non-planar with C 2 symmetry when in the gas phase [10] or in aqueous solution, [9] with C–N–H and H–N–H bond angles that are intermediate between the trigonal planar angle of 120° and the tetrahedral angle of 109.5°.
[12] [13] Complete nitrification, the conversion of ammonia to nitrate in a single step known as comammox, has an energy yield (∆G°′) of −349 kJ mol −1 NH 3, while the energy yields for the ammonia-oxidation and nitrite-oxidation steps of the observed two-step reaction are −275 kJ mol −1 NH 3, and −74 kJ mol −1 NO 2 − ...
Nitrate is a polyatomic ion ... in the natural environment using ammonia or urea as a source of ... ability to convert a relatively inert molecule into a form that is ...
Bacteria are able to convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrate but they are inhibited by light so this must occur below the euphotic zone. [43] Ammonification or Mineralization is performed by bacteria to convert organic nitrogen to ammonia. Nitrification can then occur to convert the ammonium to nitrite and nitrate. [44]
Some Nitrosomonas species, such as N.europaea, possess the enzyme urease (which catalyzes the conversion of urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide) and have been shown to assimilate the carbon dioxide released by the reaction to make biomass via the Calvin cycle, and harvest energy by oxidizing ammonia (the other product of urease) to nitrite ...