Solvay, Ernest

Ernest Solvay, (born April 16, 1838, Rebecqu-Rognon, near Brussels, Belg.—died May 26, 1922, Brussels), Belgian industrial chemist, best known for his development of a commercially viable ammonia-soda process for producing soda ash (sodium carbonate), widely used in the manufacture of such products as glass and soap.

After attending local schools, Solvay entered his father’s salt-making business. At the age of 21 he began working with an uncle at a gasworks near Brussels, and while there he began to develop the conversion method for which he is known.

Although the ammonia-soda process had been understood since 1811, a suitable and economical means of large-scale commercial production had evaded industrial chemists. Solvay, who was unaware that the reaction itself had been known for 50 years, solved the practical problems of large-scale production by his invention of the Solvay carbonating tower, in which an ammonia-salt solution could be mixed with carbon dioxide. In 1861 he and his brother Alfred founded their own company and in 1863 had a factory built. Production started in 1865, and by 1890 Solvay had established companies in several foreign countries. Solvay’s method was gradually adopted throughout much of Europe and elsewhere and by the late 19th century had supplanted the Leblanc process, which had been chiefly used for converting common salt into sodium carbonate since the 1820s.

This success brought Solvay considerable wealth, which he used for various philanthropic purposes, including the founding of various international institutes of scientific research in chemistry, physics, and sociology. The Solvay conferences on physics were particularly noted for their role in the development of theories on quantum mechanics and atomic structure.