Catalysis and Engineering: From Academia to Industry
Casale can trace its origins to the pioneering age when the ammonia industry was born, at the beginning of the XX century. At that time, ammonia was only industrially produced in Germany by Badische Anilin and Soda Fabrik (“BASF”) using its proprietary Haber-Bosch process.
In this process, owing to the relatively low synthesis pressure, water scrubbing of the reacted gases was used to capture the product ammonia as an aqueous solution, which would then undergo subsequent steps of purification in order to obtain pure ammonia.
Luigi Casale, an italian chemist, devised an innovative scheme deciding to operate the ammonia synthesis at a much higher pressure than BASF’s one, thus obtaining directly liquid ammonia.
Ammonia Casale, the original company’s name, was therefore established in Lugano (Switzerland) in 1921 with the purpose to license the newly patented process.
Lugi Casale’s flair of innovation has been preserved and continuously nurtured over the decades-long history of his Company and still deeply permeates the culture of today’s Casale. Drawing upon its creativity and thanks to significant investment in the development of core technologies and know-how for the production of Ammonia, Urea, Melamine, Methanol, Syngas, Nitrate fertilizer and Phosphates fertilizers Casale is nowadays able to provide, for plant retrofits and new plants, a comprehensive range of proven and efficient solutions, services and products as summarized below: