ABSTRACT
More than 70% of world production of ammonia depends on natural gas, and this percentage is expected to increase through the year 2000 and beyond. Ammonia is the building block from which more than 95 of the world's nitrogen products are derived, and nearly 90% of the world's ammonia production is dedicated to the production of nitrogen fertilizers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a growing population placed increasing emphasis on the need to augment agricultural production by increasing nitrogen fertilizer use, and considerable research was initiated to develop new processes for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen into forms that could be used for the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers. The availability of low-cost natural gas in the 1960s and 1970s had a major impact on the development of the nitrogen fertilizer industry as it simplified and reduced the cost of producing ammonia.
