Ostwald process
Proceso de Ostwald
- Date
- 1902 · confidence high
- Place
- Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
- Credited to
- Wilhelm Ostwald
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Ostwald patented a process to catalytically oxidize ammonia with a platinum catalyst at high temperature and pressure, yielding nitric acid. Combined with the synthetic ammonia of the Haber-Bosch process, it enabled large-scale fertilizer and explosive manufacturing.
What it led to
- Large-scale industrial production of nitric acid
- Mass manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers
- Production of explosives during the First World War, crucial for Germany under the Allied blockade