The Italian chemistry

The Chemical industry in Italy developed in the second half of the XIX century and was mainly focused on two specific sectors: petrochemical and pharmaceutical.

Between 1882 and 1888 many companies opened, to mention a few, ACNA (Azienda Coloranti Nazionali e Affini) in Cengio, Menarini Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite in Naples and Montecatini.

Other major names in national chemistry appeared also between the two world wars (e.g. Angelini and Agip), though it was during the economic boom of the Fifties that the industry really consolidated: ENI and the petrochemical cluster of Gela are two products of that time. Montecatini leveraged the discoveries made by Giulio Natta, Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1963, to produce polypropylene and polyethylene (with the famous trade name “Moplen”).

Three years later, Montedison was founded as a merger between Montecatini and Edison. The Seventies were the years when the problems began, triggered by the 1973 and 1979 energy crises and several financial mishaps.

In a few years some of the most prominent chemical groups disappeared, including Montedison, whose assets were acquired by ENI.

A new approach to production, though, started to dawn on the wake of the green economy trend, as testified by Novamont and its experience with plant-based plastic.