Ammonia Casale, the founding company of the Casale Group, is one of the oldest companies active in the field of synthetic ammonia production, having been established in Lugano (Switzerland) in 1921. Throughout its existence, Ammonia Casale has been active in the construction of new plants; to date over 200 such plants have been built worldwide.

About 25 years ago, Ammonia Casale pioneered the concept of plant revamping, which was to become its principal activity. The company developed several breakthrough technologies, including reactor designs with hybrid axial-radial flow catalyst beds, and soon became a leader in the design of ammonia synthesis reactors and related process loops.

To date Casale has designed well over 150 ammonia synthesis reactors, which operate with all types of commercially available ammonia synthesis catalysts.

More recently, the company has focused to an increasing extent on the development of technologies and know-how for the rest of the plant and has become a leader in complete ammonia plant revamping, too, with several projects completed successfully.

Depending on the needs of the client, Ammonia Casale's plant modernisation may be aimed at increasing plant capacity or reducing energy consumption while minimizing the installation of additional new equipment that would entail substantial investment costs. This is achieved by boosting the efficiency of key equipment (e.g. reactors), by partial or total replacement of the old internals with new ones, or by "in situ" modifications. Based on prevailing raw material and energy costs, the return on investment is usually high.

Ammonia Casale's outstanding synthesis loop design has been used for many years, in the construction of new plants by its licensees. Following the expansion of its technological portfolio, Ammonia Casale has, more recently, designed world-scale grass-roots plants completely based on its own technology.

In alliance with one of its partners (Lurgi), Ammonia Casale has also developed a design for mega-scale plants.

The main strength of Ammonia Casale lies in the continuous evolution of its technologies, most of which are developed in house by a team of very specialized and experienced people.