Upon the selective catalytic hydrogenation of nitric acid to hydroxylamine, the promotion effect of one or more additional metals on Pd/C or Pd + Pt/C system in the presence of GeO2 has been investigated. Among various metal elements used here, iron was found to be particularly effective for improving the catalytic activity on both the Pd/C and Pd + Pt/C systems as well as the selectivity on the Pd + Pt/C system. The new iron-doped multimetallic catalyst system is a promising alternative to the currently used catalyst system due to its excellent ability to convert the nitric acid into hydroxylamine. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.