The Complete Handbook of Ammonia
A practical reference for buying, handling, storing, and profiting from anhydrous and aqueous ammonia
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The complete operational reference for buying, handling, storing, and troubleshooting ammonia in agricultural, industrial, and hobbyist applications.
🔒30-day money-back guarantee — not right for you? Full refund, no questions asked.
About this book
Ammonia is everywhere, and it is unforgiving. It is the most widely produced industrial chemical in the world, yet it is often treated as either a simple fertilizer or a mysterious hazard, with very little practical middle ground. This handbook fills that gap. It covers the actual physical and chemical properties that impact your decisions, including vapor pressure, solubility, and the specific behavior of anhydrous versus aqueous ammonia, and why those differences matter when you are selecting a grade for a particular application.
The chapters move from the fundamentals to the practical. You will learn how to read a specification sheet, what contaminants actually cause problems in your process, and how to choose between the grades and storage modes available to you. The installation and usage chapters walk through the real-world steps of setting up a delivery or dosage system, including material compatibility, pressure management, and the safety equipment that is not optional, even for a small operation. Maintenance and troubleshooting sections cover the common failure modes, including valve freeze-up, corrosion, and pump cavitation, with diagnostic steps to fix them.
The second half of the book addresses the commercial and professional landscape. It examines how major suppliers are positioned, and how to evaluate a vendor on reliability and service, not just price. For readers looking to build a business around ammonia, it covers reselling, application services, and consulting. Finally, the book looks forward, discussing regulatory shifts, new production methods like green ammonia, and the trade publications and standards bodies you should be following. This is a working handbook, meant to be opened on the shop floor, not just read once.
Reader Reviews
Rebecca Jackson
★★★★★I bought this because I'm getting back into running a small-scale fertigation rig on our farm and I wanted something more credible than the random forum posts I was finding. The first chapter is dense but it actually explains why anhydrous behaves the way it does on the equipment, which was a lightbulb moment for understanding pressure issues. I docked a star because I wish it had more detailed photos of the tank setups, but it is solid reference material for sure.
Kathleen Gonzalez
★★★★★As a refrigeration tech who used to struggle with splicing together info from twenty different sources, this book is a godsend. The first chapter alone is worth it - it lays out the vapor pressure charts and solubility facts in a way that is actually useful when you're on a job and need to reason through a problem. It reads like a tradesman wrote it, full of the specific things you need to know, like what happens when someone uses the wrong copper fitting. The chapter on troubleshooting is the most practical piece I have ever read on the subject. Just get it.
Elizabeth Johnson
★★★★★For a serious hobbyist, this is a great bridge from 'I have no clue' to 'I know what questions to ask.' The chapter on understanding the basics is clear and helped me explain to my supplier exactly what grade and quantity I needed. My only real gripe is that it assumes you have more infrastructure than a garage hobbyist might, like it breezes through connection fittings in a way that assumes a certain setup. Still, it prevented me from making a very dangerous mistake, so I consider it money well spent.
Nancy Rivera
★★★★★Finally, a reference that treats this chemical with the gravity it deserves without being a panic-inducing safety pamphlet or an abstract chemistry textbook. The emphasis on how the physical properties translate directly into operational concerns - the chapter one explanation on how the heat of solution can freeze a line is classic - is exactly why I keep it in the shop. It is a comprehensive overview for anyone from a water treatment operator to a commercial applicator, and has an eye on the business side of things that most technical manuals miss. This will be my go-to gift for new hires.