Layman's explanation:Ammonia is a non-ionic colorless gas at ambient temperatures and a hydrogen bonding liquid at 240 Kelvin that has the remarkable ability to dissolve alkali metals. Ammonia is a Lewis base and is readily absorbed by water to form small amounts of ammonium hydroxide (pKb = 4.74). Naturally, ammonia has its sources in the biosphere (the nitrogen cycle) and is a trace gas in air and a source of ammonium ions in rain and atmospheric aerosols. Ammonia is prepared industrially by the Haber-Bosch process in quantities exceeding 120 million metric tons per year. In this process, ammonia gas is formed when hydrogen and nitrogen (3:1) are compressed to pressures of 200 atm and passed over an iron catalyst at 380-450 degrees C. Much of the ammonia produced this way (85%) is used as fertilizers on crops, a significant portion of which leaches from croplands into streams causing nitrate pollution and eutrophication of waterways (e.g., dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico). Other sources of ammonia include combustion (coal and biomass burning) and from bacterial decomposition of animal excreta.
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