The process of synthesis of nitrous oxide by ammonia oxidation in a fluidized catalyst bed reactor was studied using a suite of tools including both hardware and software. Pilot testing of the process was carried out in a fluidized bed reactor with a microspherical Mn/Bi/Al catalyst loaded therein. The experimental runs were guided by kinetic and simulation results. The stable operation regimes were achieved at the inlet ammonia concentration up to 45%; the selectivity for N2O was 86-88% at the ammonia conversion of 98-99.5% in the optimal temperature range. The catalytic activity and the selectivity remained constant during pilot tests. The modeling data agreed with the experimental results. Modeling of the large-scale reactor revealed that the catalyst productivity could be improved using the fluidized bed reactor in comparison to that in the tubular reactor due to the much more concentrated inlet flow. The inlet concentrations of ammonia could be much higher than that used in a tubular reactor (35-50 and 7-8%, respectively). (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.