I am a co-op student at a coal plant, and a supervisor of mine has requested my opinion on the best method to neutralize some excess aqueous ammonia. I have no experience with ammonia, so I am unsure how to proceed. Sulfuric acid in the form of 66 Baume (93% Acid by weight) would appear to be an economic choice for neutralizing ammonia, as we have some left over from a previous project. Acetic Acid has also been proposed as a potential neutralizing agent (and we are currently leaning towards Acetic Acid as the more environmentally safe option).
Ideally, upon application of the neutralizing agent we'd like the resultant solution to have a pH near 7 so as to be safe to discharge into river water.
If there are standard methods for neutralizing aqueous ammonia I'd certainly appreciate the info. Ideally I'd like to know what proportions / conditions are appropriate to facilitate complete reaction between the proposed acid and the excess ammonia.
Any information at all would be greatly appreciated.
Edit:
I've recently learned that the wt % of the ammonia we wish to neutralize is 29.4%. We are currently leaning towards Acetic Acid as the neutralizing agent, as it turns out we have some left on site, and my research indicates the product, Ammonium Acetate, is biodegradable. Maintaining environmentally sound levels of chemical is very important in this process.
I'd also like to mention that this is the first time that this plant has had to neutralize our excess ammonia, typically we'd just sell it.
~ Mattprole
Edited by Mattprole, 19 May 2011 - 06:00 AM.