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It's quite easy for students to become overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of equilibria in the context of industrial processes and so lose sight of the fundamental chemistry involved. It's therefore helpful to try and link what students can see in the lab with what happens on an industrial scale. This can be achieved by showing videos of industrial processes or by demonstrating key reactions in the laboratory.

Industrial process videos

A very useful source of videos about chemical industrial processes is Alchemy? Chemistry and Industrial Processes for Schools and Colleges. Common industrial processes in this series that involve equilibrium reactions include the Haber process, the Contact process and the manufacture of nitric acid.

Videos can also be used to illustrate the effectiveness of heterogeneous metal catalysts such as palladium and platinum.

How might you ensure that students get the most out of viewing a video showing an industrial process?

1. It's best to view only a short section of a video at a time.
2. Viewing a video once to get an overview of the process, then viewing it again to look for specific points, works well.
3. Asking students key questions can help them focus on the important features of the video and can help structure the way they watch the video.
4. Asking students to comment on the video helps them develop the ability to critically view this type of resource.

Laboratory demonstrations of key industrial reactions

The ammonia synthesis can be demonstrated in the laboratory. This demonstration is explored in more detail in the Developing Understanding section of this topic.

The use of catalysts is vital to many industrial processes because they can allow processes to occur at a reasonable rate without the use of excessive temperatures and pressures. The action of a platinum catalyst in the oxidation of ammonia, which is a key part of the production of nitric acid, can be easily demonstrated in the lab. Here are more details about the platinum-catalysed oxidation of ammonia demonstration.

The catalytic oxidation of propanone using copper foil can be used as an inexpensive way of illustrating heterogeneous catalysis in the lab.