Solvay Ernest

These disadvantages prompted Ernest Solvay (1838—1922) to develop and commercialize a procedure using ammonia to produce soda ash from salt and limestone. The first plant using the Solvay process was built in 1863 this process or variations are in use in much of the world in the 1990s. 

This method of making soda ash is called the Solvay process. Discovered in 1861 by Belgian businessman Ernest Solvay (1838-1922), the Solvay process was used in the commercial production of soda ash in the 1870s, and it is still in use today. Soda ash is used in the manufacture of glass and soap. It is also used in the bleaching process for paper and cloth. 

When Ernest Solvay first established the Solvay International Institute for... 

In 1864 Ernest Solvay, a Belgian chemist, invented his ammonia-soda process. A few years later the soda ash price was reduced one third. The Solvay process had completely replaced the LeBlanc method by 1915. The Solvay method is still very popular worldwide. However, in this country large deposits of natural trona ore were found in the 1940s in Green River, Wyoming. In the last few years there has been a tremendous conversion from synthetic to natural soda ash. The first and last Solvay plant in the U.S. closed in 1986 (a large Allied Chemical plant in Solvay, NY). Trona ore is found about 500 m below the surface. It is called sodium sesquicarbonate... 

Oesfeb, R. E and Clara Deasy, "Ernest Solvay (1838-1922), J. Chem... 

The LeBlanc process was the principal method of producing soda ash until 1860 when the Belgian Ernest Solvay (1838-1922) developed the process that bears his name. The Solvay process, sometimes called the ammonia method of soda production, utilized ammonia, NH3, carbon dioxide, and salt to produce sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), NaHCOj. Sodium bicarbonate was then heated to give soda ash. The series of reactions representing the Solvay process are... 

In creating the Solvay Institutes of Physics and Chemistry, the hope of Ernest Solvay has been that international meetings at the highest level should foster progress through reports and discussions. 

My wife and 1 are looking forward to having most of you for a buffet dinner at home this evening. You will be able to tell me if this conference indeed fulfills the expectations of Ernest Solvay. 

As the great grandson of Ernest Solvay who founded the Institutes, it is a special privilege for me to be here to introduce the part of this event devoted to the history of the Solvay Institutes. 

Ernest Solvay, industrial chemist and social reformer, was born in 1838, eight years after Belgian independence. He attended school as a boarder and read widely in chemistry and physics. Even at school he had converted his room into a chemical laboratory, and spent his vacations working on experiments. 

He conducted experiments that led to the ammonia process for producing sodium carbonate. On 15 April 1861, the eve of his twenty-third birthday, Ernest Solvay took out his first patent on the industrial manufacture of carbonate of soda by means of sea salt, ammonia and carbonic acid. ... 

Ernest Solvay regarded science, in its various forms, as the key that would open the door to a richer life for man. He had remarked once Among the new paths of science, I undertook to follow three directions three problems which, in my view, form a certain unity. First, a general problem of physics—the constitution of matter in time and space then a problem of physiology—the mechanism of life from its most humble manifestations up to the phenomena of thought processes and finally, the third one, a problem complementary to the first two—the evolution of the individual and that of social groups. ... 

Solvay sought to initiate this program in his life. In 1894 he endowed the Institut de Physiologie and the Institut des Sciences Sociales at the Free University of Brussels. He also endowed, in 1903, a School of Commerce, and a workman s educational center. In 1912 Ernest Solvay founded the International Institutes of Physics and Chemistry. 

Nernst and Planck had already discussed, early in 1910, the possibility of holding a conference dealing with the reform of the classical theory, although Planck had wondered whether the time was ripe and whether one should not wait another few years. Nernst s meeting with Ernest Solvay in Brussels gave fresh encouragement to holding the conference. 

In 1913, after a series of exchanges with Wilhelm Ostwald and William Ramsay, Ernest Solvay established another foundation, the Institut International de Chimie, which embraced activity relating to chemistry. The two foundations were ultimately united into Les Instituts Internationaux de Physique et de Chimie, each one having its own Scientific Committee. 

A new outlook on the comprehension of physical experience is precisely what Ernest Solvay had been thinking when he convened the first Conference and then took the initiative to provide the forum and the means for the dialogue to go on. 

All these considerations illuminate the foresight of Ernest Solvay when he envisaged liquidation after a few decades of his very successful foundation of Chemical Institutes in their original form. There are, of course, other patterns the evolution of international conferences in Chemistry proceeds without interruption. The present is an auspicious occasion. We are about to experience a Solvay pattern in another way, at this first joint conference of the Solvay Institutes with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. A few carefully selected specialists have been brought together to discuss a quite limited range of topics around a central theme. From past experience of Solvay Conferences, this is a perennial means to achieve success. We may indeed look forward to stirring and fruitful discussions. 

Union Chimique Beige was founded in 1928 by, among others, Baron Emmanuel Janssen, who was married to a granddaughter of Ernest Solvay, the founder of Sol-vay, the other Belgian hybrid chemical/pharmaceutical company. At that time, Union Chimique Beige was producing several heavy chemical intermediates such as ammonia, sulfuric acid, sodium sulfide, and coal derivatives. 

In 1864, Ernest Solvay, a Belgian chemist, invented his ammonia-soda process (Fig. 1), which has replaced the LeBlanc process. 

Ernest Solvay, a Belgian chemist, designed a tower in which carbon dioxide reacted efficiently with solid salts. The Solvay process had enormous advantages over the Leblanc process It did not generate as much waste and pollution its raw materials, brine and ammonia, were readily available (the latter from gasworks) less fuel was used, and no sulfur or nitrate was involved. In spite of its higher capital costs, it was rapidly adopted and soon became the major source of alkali. 

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