Montecatini was an important Italian chemicals company founded in 1888. It was called the quasi-monopolist of the Italian chemical industry in the time between World War I and the end of World War II. [1] Problems led to a merger with the Edison company in 1966 forming the Montedison company.
The company was founded as a small mining business in Montecatini Val di Cecina operating a copper pyrite mine in 1888. The production increased and a shift from copper ore production to pyrite production as a starting material for sulfuric acid production when Guido Donegani was made director in 1910.
Large amounts of sulfuric acid are used for the production of superphosphate fertilizers and therefore Montecatini expanded into this business. [2] By 1920 the company had acquired the two largest phosphate fertilizer producers Unione Concimi and Colla e Concimi. [3] [4] The company became dominant in chemical industry of Italy during the time of Fascist Italy. Montecatini collaborated with RIAP of Bergamo and together developed an extrusion machine. Montecatini was also involved in the creation of Lake Reschen which submerged the village of Graun.
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk chalk. Gypsum also crystallizes as translucent crystals of selenite. It forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness defines gypsum as hardness value 2 based on scratch hardness comparison.
Sulfur (also spelled sulphur in British English) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with the chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature.
Sulfuric acid or sulphuric acid, known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formula H2SO4. It is a colorless, odorless, and viscous liquid that is miscible with water.
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Many sources of fertilizer exist, both natural and industrially produced. For most modern agricultural practices, fertilization focuses on three main macro nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) with occasional addition of supplements like rock flour for micronutrients. Farmers apply these fertilizers in a variety of ways: through dry or pelletized or liquid application processes, using large agricultural equipment or hand-tool methods.
The mineral pyrite ( PY-ryte), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula FeS2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
The chemical industry comprises the companies and other organizations that develop and produce industrial, specialty and other chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials into commodity chemicals for industrial and consumer products. It includes industries for petrochemicals such as polymers for plastics and synthetic fibers; inorganic chemicals such as acids and alkalis; agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; and other categories such as industrial gases, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
The important sulfur cycle is a biogeochemical cycle in which the sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and living systems. It is important in geology as it affects many minerals and in life because sulfur is an essential element (CHNOPS), being a constituent of many proteins and cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. The global sulfur cycle involves the transformations of sulfur species through different oxidation states, which play an important role in both geological and biological processes. Steps of the sulfur cycle are:
Albright and Wilson was founded in 1856 as a United Kingdom manufacturer of potassium chlorate and white phosphorus for the match industry. For much of its first 100 years of existence, phosphorus-derived chemicals formed the majority of its products.
Leaching is a process widely used in extractive metallurgy where ore is treated with chemicals to convert the valuable metals within the ore, into soluble salts while the impurity remains insoluble. These can then be washed out and processed to give the pure metal; the materials left over are commonly known as tailings. Compared to pyrometallurgy, leaching is easier to perform, requires less energy and is potentially less harmful as no gaseous pollution occurs. Drawbacks of leaching include its lower efficiency and the often significant quantities of waste effluent and tailings produced, which are usually either highly acidic or alkali as well as toxic.
Chemische Fabrik Kalk (CFK) was a German chemicals company based in Kalk, a city district of Cologne. The company was founded in 1858 as Chemische Fabrik Vorster & Grüneberg, Cöln by Julius Vorster and Hermann Julius Grüneberg and was renamed to Chemische Fabrik Kalk GmbH in 1892. At times the company was the second-largest German producer of soda ash and was, with almost 2400 employees, one of the largest employers in Cologne. For decades the chimneys and the water tower of the factory dominated the skyline of Cologne-Kalk.
Agrico Chemical Co. is a Superfund site located in Pensacola, Florida. The facility operated under different companies from 1881 to 1975, when it was shut down by Agrico Chemical Company. The EPA found radium-226, radium-228, sulfuric acid, lead and fluorides in the groundwater. The facility produced sulfuric acid from pyrite from 1881 to 1920. The EPA believes that the lead and sulfuric acid came from corroding lead tanks that held the sulfuric acid. From 1920 to 1975, the facility produced fertilizer.
The history of fertilizer has largely shaped political, economic, and social circumstances in their traditional uses. Subsequently, there has been a radical reshaping of environmental conditions following the development of chemically synthesized fertilizers.
Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. is a major Japanese chemical company. The company is listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the on the Nikkei 225 stock index. It's a member of the Sumitomo group and was founded in 1913 as a fertilizer manufacturing plant.
Guido Donegani, was a prominent Italian engineer, businessman and politician. He was CEO and President of the Italian chemical industrial giant Montecatini from 1910-1945. Due to his support to the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini he was arrested at the end of the Second World War, but acquitted of charges of collaboration.
Versalis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian oil supermajor Eni specializing in the production of chemicals. With more than 5,000 employees and a production of about 9.5 million tons of chemical products in 2018, it is by far the largest chemical company in Italy and one of the largest in Europe.
IMC Global was a mining and production company, formerly listed on the S&P MidCap 400. It was founded in 1909 as International Agricultural Corporation. In 2004, IMC Global merged with Cargill, Inc.'s crop nutrition division to form The Mosaic Company, a crop nutrition company.
Trammo, Inc.,, engages in the international commerce, trade, transportation, distribution, and marketing of the raw materials critical to the fertilizer, mining, and petrochemical industries. It's products include anhydrous ammonia, sulfur, sulfuric acid, finished fertilizers, petroleum coke, and nitric acid. The company was established by Ronald Stanton in 1965, and is currently headquartered in New York City. The company has offices in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Middle East, and South Africa.
G. H. Nichols and Company was an American industrial company founded by William Henry Nichols and his partner, Charles W. Walter.
Aluminium metal is very rare in native form, and the process to refine it from ores is complex, so for most of human history it was unknown. However, the compound alum has been known since the 5th century BCE and was used extensively by the ancients for dyeing. During the Middle Ages, its use for dyeing made it a commodity of international commerce. Renaissance scientists believed that alum was a salt of a new earth; during the Age of Enlightenment, it was established that this earth, alumina, was an oxide of a new metal. Discovery of this metal was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, whose work was extended by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.
National DyesCompany and Affiliates, more commonly known as the ACNA, was the first Italian chemical company, active from 1929 to 1999 in Cengio, as well as in Cesano Maderno and Rho, although it traces back to 1882 under different names. The company was best known for the pollution of land and waters related to its production of dyes earning it the nickname of "the poison factory" which would see it brought before the Italian government.
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