We did have a Hackaday Prize entry a while back on improvements to the Haber process for producing ammonia, which curiously is the feedstock for commercial nitric acid production processes.

After World War I, the Provisional Laboratory of Nitrogen was established to develop ammonia and nitric acid synthesis technology. The developed ammonia synthesiscatalyst increased ammonia production ...

Ammonium nitrate is produced from ammonia and nitric acid on a large scale in industry. Ammonium nitrate can also be made in the laboratory by titrating ammonia solution with dilute nitric acid ...