Fluorsid S.p.A. is an Italian company active in the chemical industry, precisely involved in the production and sales of inorganic fluorine derivatives.
The historic production site is located in Macchiareddu, in the industrial area of Cagliari, in Sardinia, while other plants and offices are located in the Italian peninsula and in Norway. The company also has a logistics site in Bahrain.
History
Historically, since the Neolithic era, the populations that have inhabited Sardinia have always exploited the mineral wealths and varieties present in its subsoil. These mining activities grew considerably between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: in 1850 there were more than 250 mining concessions. This period was dominated by the extraction of lead and zinc which made the fortune of Arburese, Iglesiente and the Barony of Siniscola regions. The sector, however, went into crisis after the Second World War and many of these mines were closed or downsized. On the contrary, however, in the same period there has been a boom in the fluorine and barium extraction sector, especially in Gerrei area. Therefore, many entrepreneurs, supported by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia through the Sardinian Mining Authority (it. Ente Minerario Sardo), chose to invest in this new business. Among these figures there was also Count Enrico Giulini, who already obtained the first mining concessions in 1953[2] and a few years later, on 17 April 1969, he founded Fluorsid based in the Genna Tres Montis mine, in the municipality of Silius. The company was specialized in the production of synthetic cryolite and aluminum fluoride.[3] It immediately built, in Macchiareddu, a drying and bagging plant for fluorspar as well as one for briquetting the fluorite for steel and wet process, implemented in 1972.[4] This process will be used until 1988, when it was decided to switch to dry production.
At the end of the 1980s, however, the problem of the enlargement of the ozone hole emerged: chlorofluorocarbons were considered the main culprits and some of these compounds were banned by the 1987 Montreal Protocol.[5] This led to a strong crisis in the chemical industry linked to the production of fluorides (in particular hydrofluoric acid), for which the Silìus mine also entered into crisis.[6] The Autonomous Region of Sardinia therefore decided to separate the mining sector from the production and commercial side, taking charge of the first aspect and contributing to 80% of the capital of the mines in Gerrei. Since 1990, Fluorsid left Silius[2] and its business focused in the production and marketing of fluoroderivatives purchasing the raw material from other mines in the world, such as in South Africa, Morocco and China.[7] In 2006, 100% of the raw materials were imported.[8]
However, Sardinia had not been abandoned, on the contrary the industrial site of Macchiareddu was expanded, in the industrial area of Assemini, near Cagliari: in 2002 the sulfuric acid plant was started up with the production of steam by electricity and at the same time in the new Millennium the company began to grow at worldwide level and acquire other companies in the sector, also thanks to the arrival in 2005 of Tommaso Giulini, son of the founder, Count Carlo Enrico Giulini, who inherited the head of the company in 2005. With the closure of the Sardinian mines, in fact, the goal was to take advantage of the energy produced on site and, at the same time, increase production capacity, focus on innovative technologies and diversify production by focusing on the aluminum sector to seek new outlets in the Arab and Persian Gulf markets.[9]
In fact, in 2010 ICIB was acquired, at the time the Italian leader in the market of hydrofluoric acid in solution and synthetic anhydride. In 2016, with an investment of 12.5million euros, Fluorsid acquired the Norwegian company Noralf, the second largest European plant for production of aluminum fluoride.[10] The following year, on the other hand, it acquired 50% of Simplis Logistics, the logistics platform in Bahrain for trade in Asian markets.
In Italy, in 2018, the chemical company Alkeemia was acquired together with its former Solvay plant in Porto Marghera for the production of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid,[11] and in 2021 was created Fluorsid Deutschland, a German section born with the acquisition of 50% of CF Carbons, manufacturer of Chlorodifluoromethane, called also R22, in Frankfurt.[12] However in October of the same year, Fluorsid sold both the subsidiary Alkeemia, including the related assets, namely the Porto Marghera plant, and the investment in Germany to a fund managed by the English investment company Blantyre Capital Limited.[13]
Since 2019 all the subsidiaries of the Fluorsid Group have been unified and controlled under the Fluorsid brand.[14]
Products
The company is part of the fluorine value chain, with the production and marketing of its derivatives for the aluminum and special steels markets, through to the valorisation of the by-product GYPSOS, anhydrous calcium sulphate (better known as anhydrite), for the construction and cement industries. The production of sulfuric acid serves the producers of fertilizers, synthetic detergents and pharmaceutical companies.[15]
Among the chemical products there are high density aluminum fluoride made with dry process, anhydrous hydrofluoric acid in aqueous version (from 2018 to 2021 even in anidrous form in Porto Marghera plant, then sold[13]), sulfuric acid from molten sulfur with the Double Contact Double Absorption process, synthetic cryolite and calcium fluoride. Fluorsid produces also calcium sulphate in various forms (raw, milled or granular) and it is sold under the trade name Gypsos.[16]
Headquarters and production plants
The production plant in Macchiareddu, in SardiniaEntrance of the factory in Treviglio, near Bergamo
The administrative headquarters and the offices of the company are located in via Vegezio Milan, in the Citylife district,[17] while the production plants are scattered in several countries in Europe.
The company's first plant, that is as well the registered office, is located in Macchiareddu (in the territory of Assemini), an industrial area on the outskirts of Cagliari, in Sardinia. It has been built when fluorite was still extracted in Gerrei. Here aluminum fluoride, sulfuric acid, synthetic cryolite, calcium fluoride and calcium sulfate are produced under the Gypsos brand. Aluminum fluoride is produced in five parallel production lines. The last two built, in 2008 and 2013, are equipped with highly efficient double-bed reactors. Sulfuric acid is produced in two parallel plants, the first built in 2002 and the second, of the same capacity, in 2013.[18] The raw material for both plants is molten sulfur from nearby Saras in Sarroch's refinery, which guarantees the absence of dangerous dust. The process is highly exothermic and, thanks to a very efficient heat recovery, huge quantities of steam are generated and sent to two turbine generators of 5 and 7 MW capacity. These ones, starting from a zero-km by-product, allow the plant to be self-sufficient in terms of sulfuric acid, steam and electricity without the use of fuels, carbon dioxide emissions or other greenhouse gases.[19]
In 2010 the group acquired ICIB, which had been the main producer of hydrofluoric acid since 1949, and settled in its Treviglio plant, in Bergamo area.[20]
With the acquisition of Noralf in 2013, it is also present in Norway in the Odda plant, capable of producing around 40,000 tons per year of aluminum fluoride.[21]
Finally, with the subsidiary Simplis Logistics, the company operates in Manama, Bahrain, in the logistics sector and in the transport of production materials.[22]
In 2018 Fluorsid acquired from Solvay its plant in Porto Marghera, in the industrial area of Venice. Indeed here there was one of the biggest productions of hydrofluoric acid, in both anhydrous and aqueous form, and of fluoroderivatives (calcium sulphate).[23] The company therefore settled here its company branch called Fluorsid Alkeemia. The plant had an area of 125,000 square meters and every year 27,000 tons of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid and 100,000 tons of calcium sulphate were produced. In February 2021 it was selected by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development for a European Union Project of Common Interest for the development of innovative lithium battery cells and systems.[24] In October 2021 Fluorsid sold the controlled company Alkeemia and its plant.[13]
In 2021, with the establishment of Fluorsid Deutschland, the company arrived in Germany at the Höchst plant, near Frankfurt Airport. The plant mainly produced chlorodifluoromethane, a raw material for many fluorine polymers such as PTFE and some special fluoroelastomers. The production capacity of the plant was about 24,000 MT per year and is managed through the partner Nouryon, the original owner of the site.[12] In October of the same year, together with the sale of the subsidiary Alkeemia, there has been the sale of the 50% stake in CF Carbons which ended the activities on in Germany.[13]
Legal controversies
In May 2017 Fluorsid was implicated in an investigation for environmental disaster which also involved its top management with accusations of conspiracy and environmental crimes.[25] At the end of the events, the company and the reference company were declared extraneous to the conduct, because the technical choices were not being made by the top management of Fluorsid. The agents of the Regional Forestry Corps seized two areas containing polluting materials: one of three hectares, next to the Fluorsid plant in Macchiareddu, in Sardinia, where there were piles of materials stored outdoors and one of five hectares in Terrasili, in the municipality of Assemini, for the storage of various materials. The warrant contested the presence of contamination by dispersion of harmful dust containing fluorine, the contamination of the soil by diffusion of fluorine dust, then ending up on grazing lands, and the contamination of groundwater and livestock by heavy metals and inorganic compounds, and contamination of livestock by fluorine in Macchiareddu.[26] The investigation closed in December 2018 bringing the number of suspects to 15,[27] which then rose to 22 including managers of public control bodies.
On 26 June 2019, the company presented an investment plan of approximately 22 million euros to modernize the area around the Macchiareddu plant and further improve compliance with environmental safety.[28] On 25 July of the same year 11 of the 22 suspects negotiated a sentence of 23 months' detention (but with suspended sentence) and a 7,000 euro fine for pollution, environmental disaster and illegal waste disposal, while the accusation of conspiracy was canceled.[29] On 18 December 2019 the case was definitively closed with the dismissal of the positions of the remaining 11 suspects, which involved the managers of Fluorsid (including the president of Cagliari Calcio and of the company itself Tommaso Giulini) and its subsidiaries and managers of the Sardinian Healthcare Board (ATS) and of the Sardinian Environmental Defense Board (ARPAS).[30] The plea deal, as well as the final setting of the accusation, confirmed the extraneousness of Fluorsid and its top management with respect to the conduct.[31]
Governance
Fluorsid consists of five subsidiaries that report directly to the original company established in 1969. In fact, they maintain organizational charts and legal entities, but are unified from a commercial and brand point of view, with their name preceded by that of the Group, precisely Fluorsid. Management is led by the Fluorsid Board of directors to which the BoDs of the subsidiaries also refer. With regard to organizational reports, the plant managers of the subsidiaries report directly to the Fluorsid's chief executive officer.[14] The entire Fluorsid is part of the holding called Fluorsid Group, that has the full ownership of the professional football club Cagliari Calcio, the main sports club in Sardinia, and the minority shareholdings in other companies in several sectors.[32]
The halogens are a group in the periodic table consisting of six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and the radioactive elements astatine (At) and tennessine (Ts), though some authors would exclude tennessine as its chemistry is unknown and is theoretically expected to be more like that of gallium. In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, this group is known as group 17.
Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.
Fluoride is an inorganic, monatomic anion of fluorine, with the chemical formula F− , whose salts are typically white or colorless. Fluoride salts typically have distinctive bitter tastes, and are odorless. Its salts and minerals are important chemical reagents and industrial chemicals, mainly used in the production of hydrogen fluoride for fluorocarbons. Fluoride is classified as a weak base since it only partially associates in solution, but concentrated fluoride is corrosive and can attack the skin.
Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in water. Solutions of HF are colorless, acidic and highly corrosive. A common concentration is 49% (48-52%) but there are also stronger solutions and pure HF has a boiling point near room temperature. It is used to make most fluorine-containing compounds; examples include the commonly used pharmaceutical antidepressant medication fluoxetine (Prozac) and the material PTFE (Teflon). Elemental fluorine is produced from it. It is commonly used to etch glass and silicon wafers.
Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the formula CaSO4 and related hydrates. In the form of γ-anhydrite (the anhydrous form), it is used as a desiccant. One particular hydrate is better known as plaster of Paris, and another occurs naturally as the mineral gypsum. It has many uses in industry. All forms are white solids that are poorly soluble in water. Calcium sulfate causes permanent hardness in water.
Calcium fluoride is the inorganic compound of the elements calcium and fluorine with the formula CaF2. It is a white solid that is practically insoluble in water. It occurs as the mineral fluorite (also called fluorspar), which is often deeply coloured owing to impurities.
Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan was a French chemist and pharmacist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds. Moissan was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee.
Calcium lactate is a white crystalline salt with formula C 6H 10CaO 6, consisting of two lactate anions H 3C(CHOH)CO− 2 for each calcium cation Ca2+ . It forms several hydrates, the most common being the pentahydrate C 6H 10CaO 6·5H 2O.
Iron(III) fluoride, also known as ferric fluoride, are inorganic compounds with the formula FeF3(H2O)x where x = 0 or 3. They are mainly of interest by researchers, unlike the related iron(III) chloride. Anhydrous iron(III) fluoride is white, whereas the hydrated forms are light pink.
Hydrogen fluoride (fluorane) is an inorganic compound with chemical formula HF. It is a very poisonous, colorless gas or liquid that dissolves in water to yield an aqueous solution termed hydrofluoric acid. It is the principal industrial source of fluorine, often in the form of hydrofluoric acid, and is an important feedstock in the preparation of many important compounds including pharmaceuticals and polymers, e.g. polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). HF is also widely used in the petrochemical industry as a component of superacids. Due to strong and extensive hydrogen bonding, it boils at near room temperature, much higher than other hydrogen halides.
Hexafluorosilicic acid is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula H 2SiF 6. Aqueous solutions of hexafluorosilicic acid consist of salts of the cation and hexafluorosilicate anion. These salts and their aqueous solutions are colorless.
Aluminium fluoride is an inorganic compound with the formula AlF3. It forms hydrates AlF3·xH2O. Anhydrous AlF3 and its hydrates are all colorless solids. Anhydrous AlF3 is used in the production of aluminium. Several occur as minerals.
Fluorapatite, often with the alternate spelling of fluoroapatite, is a phosphate mineral with the formula Ca5(PO4)3F (calcium fluorophosphate). Fluorapatite is a hard crystalline solid. Although samples can have various color (green, brown, blue, yellow, violet, or colorless), the pure mineral is colorless, as expected for a material lacking transition metals. Along with hydroxylapatite, it can be a component of tooth enamel, but for industrial use both minerals are mined in the form of phosphate rock, whose usual mineral composition is primarily fluorapatite but often with significant amounts of the other.
Fluorine is a chemical element; it has symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at standard conditions as a highly toxic, pale yellow diatomic gas. Fluorine is extremely reactive, as it reacts with all other elements except for the light inert gases.
Potassium heptafluorotantalate is an inorganic compound with the formula K2[TaF7]. It is the potassium salt of the heptafluorotantalate anion [TaF7]2−. This white, water-soluble solid is an intermediate in the purification of tantalum from its ores and is the precursor to the metal.
Fluorine may interact with biological systems in the form of fluorine-containing compounds. Though elemental fluorine (F2) is very rare in everyday life, fluorine-containing compounds such as fluorite occur naturally as minerals. Naturally occurring organofluorine compounds are extremely rare. Man-made fluoride compounds are common and are used in medicines, pesticides, and materials. Twenty percent of all commercialized pharmaceuticals contain fluorine, including Lipitor and Prozac. In many contexts, fluorine-containing compounds are harmless or even beneficial to living organisms; in others, they are toxic.
The global market for chemicals from fluorine was about US$16 billion per year as of 2006. The industry was predicted to reach 2.6 million metric tons per year by 2015. The largest market is the United States. Western Europe is the second largest. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region of production. China in particular has experienced significant growth as a fluorochemical market and is becoming a producer of them as well. Fluorite mining was estimated in 2003 to be a $550 million industry, extracting 4.5 million tons per year.
Fluorine is a relatively new element in human applications. In ancient times, only minor uses of fluorine-containing minerals existed. The industrial use of fluorite, fluorine's source mineral, was first described by early scientist Georgius Agricola in the 16th century, in the context of smelting. The name "fluorite" derives from Agricola's invented Latin terminology. In the late 18th century, hydrofluoric acid was discovered. By the early 19th century, it was recognized that fluorine was a bound element within compounds, similar to chlorine. Fluorite was determined to be calcium fluoride.
Sodium bifluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula Na[HF2]. It is a salt of sodium cation and bifluoride anion. It is a white, water-soluble solid that decomposes upon heating. Sodium bifluoride is non-flammable, hygroscopic, and has a pungent smell. Sodium bifluoride has a number of applications in industry.
Neodymium(III) fluoride is an inorganic chemical compound of neodymium and fluorine with the formula NdF3. It is a purplish pink colored solid with a high melting point.
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€32 million (2019)
