Basf Se Corporation

Joerg Torsten Nickel

Heinz-Josef Kneuper

Jan-Martin Loening

Stephanie Mollner

A process for preparing nitric acid by: catalytically oxidizing ammonia, to obtain a gas mixture containing NO and O; cooling and condensing the gas mixture, thereby further oxidizing NO with O, to obtain a gas stream containing NO/NOand an aqueous solution containing nitric acid; and countercurrently absorbing the NO/NOfrom the gas stream in an absorber with process water (HO), to obtain nitric acid and an NO-containing absorber offgas, wherein the water content of the nitric acid is regulated to a concentration in the range from 50 to 77.8% by weight and the NOcontent of the absorber offgas to a concentration in the range from 20 to 500 ppm, by continuously measuring the water content of the process air supplied to the catalytic gas phase oxidation and, as a function of this, adjusting the amount of process water (Q-HO) fed to the absorber.

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Karlsruhe, Germany

Joerg Torsten Nickel