The Anonymous Greek Industries for Nitrogen Fertilizers (AEVAL) was created in 1959 by initiative of the Greek State Fund, with the aim of producing ammonia, fertilizers and other nitrogen-based chemicals from the gasification of lignite. To this purpose, a large chemical complex was built nearby Ptolemaida's lignite mines. The state-owned plant went operational in 1963, using the German-Italian UHDE/Casale technology. After a significant increase of production in the late 1960s and 1970s, AEVAL’s control was transferred from the Hellenic Bank for Industrial Development to the Greek Agricultural Bank in 1985. The complex was then refurbished to meet the competition requirements imposed by the newly liberalized fertilizer market. Such restructuring failed, however, to address the main structural deficits of the plant, such as the high energy and production costs and the obsolete technologies and facilities.  Gradually downsized, the complex was finally shut down in 1997. Almost intact though ruining, the whole site was then acquired in 2011 by the municipality of Eordaia (former Ptolemaida), with resources from the “lignite fee”. With the aim to address the adaptive reuse of the complex as an industrial heritage park, a first draft proposal was outlined in 2014 within the EU JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) initiative.