Eli5: How is petroleum used to make fertilizer when it doesn’t have any of the three key ingredients?

Question

I was taught synthetic fertilizers are made of oil, which are a mix of hydrocarbons…. but fertilizers are made of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

In: 5

Answer 1

oil has a lot of stuff mixed into it.

nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are all needed in tiny doses (similar to human minerals).

All those minerals are part of a compound, some of which could be organic. Pure nitrogen is a gas, and pure potassium blows up if it touches water, pure phosphorpous is a poison. So they need to be bound in a molecule with other elements to make them safe and available for plants.