HISTORY OF ZAKLADY AZOTOWE "PULAWY" SA

The sixties

December 1960

On the 19th of December 1960 by the resolution of the Polish Cabinet it was decided that  the Factory of Nitrate Fertilizers will be placed in Pulawy. On the 1st of May 1961 the company came formally to existence when the authorities of the factory were established in Budowa. Mieczysław Kołodziej became the first company president and Jan Zdebik was vice president for technical matters (main engineer).
 
In an extremely short period of 4 months all the instructions for the construction of the plant as well as general plan and preliminary project were prepared and presented to the investor in November 1961. After finalizing all the assent phases, on the 5th of October 1962 the preliminary project was received by the Planning Committee which ordered the first ammonia and urea series and heating production plant sections ready for operation in the fourth quarter of 1965. Technologies used in the plant were based on the most innovative ideas from the best companies in the world. For instance the license for the process of ammonia production was bought from Danish Haldor Topsoe Company and the license for urea production from Japanese Company Toyo Koatsu.

January 1964

In January 1964 it was decided to place second plant for fertilizers production in ZAP. It was supposed to produce Norway saltpeter due to an increasingly growing demand for the product in the national agriculture. On the 11th of July 1965 with the solemn building in of the erection act the building of the "Pulawy II" began. The license for Norway saltpeter was delivered by Kaltenbach and production of nitric acid was based on the concept of Starnicarbon.

4th June 1966

The 4th of June 1966 is regarded as an official start of production in Zaklady Azotowe “Pulawy” because at that day the first ammonia synthesis came into effect in the first production plant. However, the official opening took place 43 days later - on the 16th of July – when the plant was fully operational and crystal urea was already produced in the first installation.

Years 1967-1970

The investment of the years 1967 – 1970 was the production plant of liquid carbon dioxide and  dry ice. In this period also the production of polyethylene bags started in the factory.

Till the end of the 60's there were twenty large production units opened for both factories of fertilizers which tripled the total of nitric fertilizers production in the whole country. In 1970 already the effectiveness of the factory utilization reached 80%. During that time "Pulawy" became the biggest (60% of the market) one-component nitric fertilizers producer in the Polish market.