former General Chemical (Town of Amherstburg, Ontario)

Canada / Ontario / Amherstburg / Town of Amherstburg, Ontario
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The beginnings of the former General Chemical plant commenced in 1900 when local stone quarries began supplying calcium rich crushed stone to the Solvay Process Company in Delray, Michigan which used it in the production of soda ash.

Soda ash is a key chemical used in the production of glass, soap and the bleaching of fabrics and paper. The Solvay process to produce soda ash was named after Belgium chemist Ernst Solvay and starts with saturating a concentrated brine solution with ammonia to form ammonium salts which are then saturated with carbon dioxide through the burning of lime, producing sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate which is converted to soda ash by heating. With an abundant supply of limestone and the presence of extensive brine fields near the Canard River, Amherstburg was a logical place to locate a plant to produce soda ash.

At the outset of WWI Canada still depended upon Great Britain to supply 60% of its soda ash needs. When this supply was threatened by the diversion of English production to meet wars needs, plans to construct a plant in Amherstburg proceeded rapidly. In 1917 after acquiring lands near Amherstburg and River Canard, Brunner Mond of Great Britain announced that it would build a new plant in Amherstburg to produce soda ash. Construction commenced on March 17, 1917 and the first shipment of soda ash left the new Brunner Mond plant for Montreal in September 1919.

In 1936 the plant started to produce calcium chloride in addition to soda ash. By 1948, the plant had undergone several expansions and employed over 1,000. In 1958 Allied Chemical acquired the operation which produced over 300,000 tons of soda ash annually. Subsequent improvements were made to produce hydrofluoric acid.

In 1989 the soda ash and calcium chloride operations were sold by Allied Chemical's corporate successor, Honeywell, to General Chemical. Honeywell retained the hydrofluoric acid facilities together with part of the lands. At that time the operations employed 490 people and produced 475,000 tons of soda ash and 400,000 tons of calcium chloride annually from one million tons of salt obtained from the brine fields and 650,000 tons of 90% calcium rich limestone produced from its open pit quarry.

With the development of the competing caustic soda method of producing soda ash, the Solvay method became less competitive. By 1986 the last Solvay process plant in the U.S. was closed as production moved to the Green River area of Wyoming rich in soda ash found in local deposits of trona. General Chemical discontinued soda ash production at Amherstburg in 2001 and entered bankruptcy in 2005 at which time the production of calcium chloride was shut down.

The property contains five above ground brine and calcium chloride storage lagoons, storage tanks for holding heavy oil and a 176 ac. Soda Ash Settling Basin. The Province of Ontario reached a settlement with the U.S. parent corporation of General Chemical in 2009 to fund a cleanup of the site. Clean up operations have not commenced.
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Coordinates:   42°7'20"N   83°6'3"W
This article was last modified 14 years ago