Uses of Dihydrogen

Industrial and Practical Uses

• Ammonia synthesis is the single largest use of dihydrogen, feeding into the manufacture of nitric acid and nitrogenous fertilisers.
• Hydrogenation of vegetable oils (soyabean, cottonseed and others) produces vanaspati and similar fats.
• Manufacture of bulk organic chemicals, especially methanol:

• Manufacture of metal hydrides for various applications (section 9.5).
• Preparation of hydrogen chloride, a widely used industrial chemical.
• Metallurgy — reducing heavy metal oxides back to the free metal.
• Cutting and welding — atomic hydrogen or oxy-hydrogen torches. Atomic hydrogen, produced by electric-arc dissociation of $H_2$, recombines on the metal surface being welded and generates temperatures around 4000 K. …