CNTIC Urea Plant, 1963, Luzhou, Sichuan province, P.R. China
Group Historical Footprint in Fertilizers Sector 50
Maire Tecnimont Group’s experience in fertilizer technologies dates back to the 1920s through its predecessor Montecatini. That is when Giacomo Fauser began production of ammonia by the direct reaction of hydrogen and nitrogen in a especially designed vessel. Fauser’s design concept is still used in modern ammonia synthesis reactors. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Fauser’s team in the Montecatini Research and Development Centre G. Donegani developed original processes for the manufacture of all fertilizers in use at that time. These were implemented by Montecatini in its own factories and were also sold worldwide through its engineering division, which later on became Tecnimont, one of the main operating companies of our Group. At the beginning of the 1960s, when fertilizer plant capacities increased from hundreds to a thousand and more tonnes/day, Montedison, the successor of Montecatini, focused on the development of single-stream, large-capacity ammonia and urea plants. Many plants were sold worldwide by Tecnimont at that time, notably in Italy, India, Russia and other former Soviet republics. In the 1970s and 1980s, Montedison and Tecnimont focused their efforts on developing a low-energy, high-capacity urea process, which was subsequently licensed in Italy, China and Poland. In the 1990s, as part of the rationalization of the Italian fertilizer industry, Montedison sold all its fertilizer plants, and the relevant technologies, to Enichem. This left Tecnimont temporarily without access to fertilizer technology. The Company decided to continue its fertilizer plant contracting business based on first-class third-party technologies, notably Kellogg Brown & Root for ammonia and Stamicarbon for urea. Tecnimont became an approved contractor for both companies. Maire Tecnimont acquired Stamicarbon in 2009, enlarging its intellectual property expertise and adding technology licensing to its traditional engineering and construction activities. The Dutch company was founded in the 1940s as the licensing subsidiary of DSM (Dutch State Mines) selling licences for coal-washing plants and then entering the chemical sector in the 1950s, licensing urea processes. Urea technology licensing rapidly became Stamicarbon’s most important activity and then its pivotal activity by the end of the 1980s, when it ceased to offer mineral technology. Stamicarbon is acknowledged today to be a world leader in the design and innovation of urea plant technology. Maire Tecnimont Group is proud to combine the expertise and innovation skills of these two great companies, Tecnimont and Stamicarbon, in its ammonia-urea E&C and licensing activities.