WesWorld

The Belgian chemical industry is dominated by the Solvay company which today is an international concern. Other notable companies include La Citrique Belge, which is one of the biggest producers of citric acid in the world. Cellophane and ammonia are other important products of this sector, and moves are being made towards the creation of a pharmaceuticals industry by several of the Belgian companies.

La Citrique Belge
This Belgian-Italian company founded in 1929 and based in Tienen is one of the biggest producers of citric acid in the world. In 1916, Alphonse Cappuyns and Arsène Smeets, both students from Leuven, started searching for the biological production of citric acid. First they tried by letting random micro-organisms ferment sugar into citric acid. Later they proceeded by selecting the Aspergillus niger fungus after which they achieved a productivity which allowed for industrial exploitation. In 1947, the basic substrate sugar was changed with the cheaper by-product molasses and the production and profitability increased steadily.

Recherche et Industrie Thérapeutiques (R.I.T.)
Founded in 1945 in Genval, by Dr Pieter De Somer, as Belgium’s producer of penicillin The industrialist Jacques Lannoy provided funding for the company. The company began its own vaccine research and production from 1950.

Société Industrielle de la Cellophane (SIDAC)
Founded in 1926 with a factory in Ghent to produce cellophane. In 1932, it founded a subsidiary in Britain, British Sidac Ltd. to distribute its Ghent-produced film which subsequently opened its first production plant at St Helens in 1934. It acquired the British New Wrap Co. Ltd. in 1942 in an attempt to counter the dominant position of British Cellophane in the British market.

Solvay S.A.
A chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels.
The company was founded by Ernest Solvay to produce sodium carbonate by the solvay process and later diversified into chemicals, pharmaceuticals and plastics. Before the Great War, Solvay was the largest multinational company in the world. In 1874, Solvay expanded their facilities with a new and larger plant at Nancy, France and in the same year, Ludwig Mond visited Solvay in Belgium and acquired rights to use the new technology. He and John Brunner formed Brunner, Mond & Co., at Winnington, Northwich, Cheshire, Britain. Mond was instrumental in making the Solvay process a commercial success with several refinements between 1873 and 1880. In 1884, the Solvay brothers licensed Americans William B. Cogswell and Rowland Hazard to produce soda ash in the US, and formed a joint venture (Solvay Process Company) to build and operate a plant in Solvay, New York. By the 1890s, Solvay process plants produced the majority of the world's soda ash. Solvay Indupa (Indústrias Patagonicas), an Argentine subsidiary of Solvay, was established in Río Negro Province on September 16, 1948. The plant will become the region’s leading local producer of chlorine, Polyvinyl chloride resins (PVC) and caustic soda.
Since 1911, the company has supported the Solvay Conferences in physics and chemistry that were founded by Ernest Solvay. He also founded the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, located in Brussels in 1912.

UCB (Union Chimique Belge)
Founded on 18 January 1928 by Emmanuel Janssen. The company produces industrial chemicals and was one of the first to distill ammonia from coal. The company also includes a small pharmaceutical division based around Meurice Laboratories. In 1950, UCB set up a research centre where new medicines will be developed.

Arsenicumfabriek N.V.
The Arsenic Factory in Reppel was founded in 1895 and became a public company two years later. By 1900 it employed around 250 workers. After the Great War, all the shares came were acquired by the Société Générale Métallurgique Hoboken. The arsenic is extracted from ore from Morocco and is used in the pesticide industry and the paint industry. In addition, another factory owned by the company makes silver cutlery and bowls and pots in stainless steel marketed under the Reppel brand.

Ça-va-seul S.A. (CVS)
The company was founded in Diksmuide by Gery Boucquey . In the 1880s he ran a shop seling polishes. He experimented with making his own polishes and discovered an abrasive based soot and oil burners cleaner. This gave rise to the marketing slogan and name Ça-va-seul (that goes without saying). Besides this, he also developed a number of shoe polishes. In 1889, he started a small production workshop, the Fabrique Nationale de Cirages. The produced stove cleaner, brass polish , wax and paraffin sold under brand names like; Briol, Cito, Gloria, Ça-brille and Ça-va-seul. Although production slumped during the Great War, in 1919 the company won an exlcusive contract to supply the Belgian Army with boot polish and later contracts with Belgian police and other government departments. A new factory was built in Vilvoorde in 1928 and the company adopted Ça va-seul as its name. A new brand, Rich Polish was introduced in 1930 and in 1931 a factory was opened in Haubourdin, France.

Cimenteries et Briqueteries Réunies La Bonne Espérance (CBR)
A group of cement plants whose head office is based in Brussels. The basis of the group was formed by the merger of La Bonne Espérance in Turnhout and Fabrique de Ciment Portland Artificiel in Loën in 1922. Two years later, Fabrique de Ciment et Briqueteries in Ravel was taken over followed by the Société des Ciments de Mons in Mons in 1926. In 1929 two further companies were acquired; the North Portland Cement and Brick Works in Beerse and Société Niel in Niel. The final acquisition was the Société des Carrières et Fours à Chaux et à Ciments du Coucou based in Antoing. In 1950, a limestone quarry and mill will established in Lieze with a potential output of over 140,000 tons of clinker cement.

Société du Pneu Englebert
Thecompany was founded in 1871 by Oscar Englebert to make rubber products. By 1898, it began making tires. The company acquired its competitor Clairoix in 1926. A second factory was built in 1929, in Germany. Since 1939, it has made Bakelite plastics. The company also produces E2 and EV639 model gas masks for the Belgian Army.

SA Gelatins Hasselt Vilvorde
Founded in 1893 as Société des Produits Chimiques the Hasselt, by industrialists Hertz and Wolff, to produce glue and gelatine. In addition, the plant manufactured chemicals and fertilizers. In 1910 the Société des Etablissements Fermière Humbert in Vilvoorde was acquired. Both companies merged in 1919. In 1925, the gelatine factory Hyon was taken over and the company became the largest gelatine producer in the world. The Hasselt factory was largely destroyed by fire on 30 September 1927, but was rebuilt. Today it employs 300 workers.

Koninklijke Buskruitfabriek Cooppal (Royal Gunpowder Factory)
Founded in Wetteren, by Jan Frans Cooppal, in 1778. King Leopold I granted the designation Royal in 1847. In 1926, ethyl acetate was produced and the hunting cartridges department was expanded. Safety fuses have been manufactured since 1931 and TNT since 1933. Another factory was built at Kaulille in Limburg in 1881 and today it covers 180 ha. This factor has produced nitro-glycerine since 1930 and employs 600 workers.

Société Belge de l'Azote et des Produits Chimiques du Marly
Georges Claude in 1917 proved that the production of synthetic ammonia was more cost-effective at high pressure and cooled with hydrogen. The Société Belge de l'Azote was founded in 1923 in Renory-Ougrée in order to apply this procedure on an industrial scale. In addition, the company also produces ammonia from calcium carbide. In 1937, the firm merged with the Société des Produits Chimiques du Marly. This merger made it the largest producer of chemicals in Belgium. The company also produces synthetic lubricating oils and fuels for the Ministry of Defence at a factory in Liege. In 1936, the company developed the Respirator SBA for the industrial market and it was widely exported. The cheaper L702 respirator has been exported to the Netherlands, Dutch East Indies, France and Nordmark in a variety of models. In 1946, a pharmaceutical subsidiary, Labaz, was formed to enter this new market.

Remy N.V.
This company was founded in 1855, in Wijgmaal near Leuven, and is one of the world's largest producers of rice starches . It was founded by industrialist Edward Remy. He bought a water mill on the Dyle in 1855 and soon expanded and had its own branch of the Leuven-Dyle canal.