Ammonia is perhaps the most critical man-made substance to the existence of human society. Without agricultural growth, the world’s expanding population would have faced food shortages and famines a long time ago.
The expansion of population to a large extent is based on fertiliser driven agriculture and thus, indirectly on ammonia.
The discovery of ammonia synthesis by Fritz Haber and subsequent commercialisation by Carl Bosch in 1910 freed the human race of the need to worry about a source of nitrogen fertiliser for a long time.
Ammonia, either directly or indirectly, is also a building block for the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals. It is one of the most abundantly produced inorganic chemicals.
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