Bochum in Germany

Researchers returned to the oxidation of ammonia in air, (recorded as early as 1798) in an effort to improve production economics. In 1901 Wilhelm Ostwald had first achieved the catalytic oxidation of ammonia over a platinum catalyst. The gaseous nitrogen oxides produced could be easily cooled and dissolved in water to produce a solution of nitric acid. This achievement began the search for an economic process route. By 1908 the first commercial facility for production of nitric acid, using this new catalytic oxidation process, was commissioned near Bochum in Germany. The Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis process came into operation in 1913, leading to the continued development and assured future of the ammonia oxidation process for the production of nitric acid. 

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