Hydroxylammonium nitrate free of ammonium nitrate

A continuous process for producing HAN by the steps of:

• (a) removing essentially all metal ions from a metal ion-containing, ammonia-containing aqueous hydroxylamine solution, having a hydroxylamine concentration of at least about 10% by weight based upon the weight of the hydroxylamine solution, by distilling the metal ion-containing, ammonia-containing hydroxylamine solution, or by treating the metal ion-containing, ammonia-containing hydroxylamine solution with a chelating ion exchange resin, to provide a metal ion-free, ammonia-containing aqueous hydroxylamine solution,
• (b) stripping ammonia from said metal ion-free, ammonia-containing hydroxylamine solution by contacting the metal ion-free, ammonia-containing hydroxylamine solution with a stripping agent selected from the group consisting of inert gases and steam to provide a metal ion-free, ammonia-free, aqueous hydroxylamine solution,
• (c) reacting the metal ion-free, ammonia-free, aqueous hydroxylamine solution with an essentially equimolar amount of a metal ion-free, aqueous nitric acid having an acid concentration of between about 20% and about 70%, based upon the weight of the aqueous nitric acid, to produce ammonium nitrate-free HAN containing excess hydroxylamine or excess nitric acid, and
• (d) contacting said excess hydroxylamine with additional nitric acid or contacting said excess nitric acid with additional hydroxylamine in order to produce excess nitric acid-free and excess hydroxylamine-free HAN that is essentially free of ammonium nitrate, and
• (e) repeating steps (a) through (d) in a continuous fashion.