A Brief History of Soda Ash
Created on 01.23
Soda ash, chemically known as sodium carbonate, is hailed as the "mother of chemical industry" and is widely used in fields such as glass, papermaking, textiles, chemicals, metallurgy, detergents, food, and new energy. China's soda ash industry has undergone a development process from small to large and from weak to strong. In recent years, with significant breakthroughs in the exploration of China's natural soda resources, the domestic natural soda industry has rapidly risen, injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of China's soda ash industry. It has leaped from a global industry follower to a leader, writing a magnificent epic of technological innovation and rapid rise in national industry.
Prior to the invention of the workshop alkali production method, humans primarily obtained alkali from natural soda lakes and wood ash. In the 18th century, the advancement of the Industrial Revolution significantly increased the demand for soda ash, leading to the emergence of workshop alkali production techniques. In 1791, French chemist N. Le Belanc invented the soda process using sulfuric acid, table salt, coal, and limestone as raw materials, pioneering a new era in modern alkali production. In 1861, Belgian chemist E.Solvay developed the Solvay process (also known as the ammonia-soda process), which utilized table salt, ammonia, and carbon dioxide as raw materials. This method offered advantages such as inexpensive raw materials, high product purity, and suitability for large-scale production, laying the foundation for modern alkali industry. It quickly replaced the Le Belanc process as the mainstream production method. However, the ammonia-soda process had low raw material utilization rates and generated substantial amounts of calcium chloride waste liquid and lime sludge residues.
In the early 20th century, the development of China's soda ash industry was constrained by the monopoly of "foreign soda." In 1920, patriotic industrialist Fan Xudong founded Yongli Soda Manufacturing Co., Ltd., inviting Dr. Hou Debang, who had studied in the United States, to return as the chief technician. In the dire situation of lacking technology and materials, Hou Debang led the breakthrough and produced "Red Triangle" brand soda ash with a purity of 99% in Tanggu, Tianjin, in 1926, winning the gold medal at the same year's World Exposition and breaking the Western monopoly. In 1937, when the full-scale Anti-Japanese War broke out, to preserve the national industry, Yongli Company relocated westward to Sichuan. As the ammonia-soda process became unsustainable, Hou Debang explored an alternative and invented the "Hou's Soda Manufacturing Method" (i.e., the combined soda process) in 1943. This method combined synthetic ammonia with the ammonia-soda process, increasing the utilization rate of raw salt from 70% to over 98%, while also producing ammonium chloride as a byproduct, marking a significant innovation in the history of global soda manufacturing. In 1959, Hou Debang authored "Soda Manufacturing Engineering," freely disclosing the technology to benefit the world.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the total soda ash production in the country was only 88,000 tons. In 1953, the first invention patent certificate of New China was awarded to the Hou's soda-making method. In the 1960s, large-scale soda-making facilities such as the Dalian Chemical Plant and Qingdao Alkali Plant were successively built and put into operation, with soda ash production exceeding the 1 million ton mark. In 1978, China's soda ash production reached 1.329 million tons. Reform and opening-up injected new vitality into China's soda ash industry, and a number of small ammonia-soda plants and soda-making facilities emerged across the country. The Weifang Alkali Plant, Tangshan Alkali Plant, and Lianyungang Alkali Plant, known as the "Three Major Alkali Plants," were successively completed and put into operation in 1989, achieving a leapfrog growth in domestic production capacity and completely ending the history of imports. That year, China exported 90,000 tons, marking the first time China became an exporter of soda ash. By 2003, China had become the world's largest soda ash producer with an annual output of 11.05 million tons. By 2020, China's soda ash production capacity exceeded 32 million tons.
Caustic soda is a type of salt deposit, belonging to soluble carbonates, also known as sodium bicarbonate (Na2CO3 NaHCO3 2H2O). It also exists in the form of tenhydrate sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and mirabilite in salt-alkali-nitrogen coexisting forms. The natural soda deposits discovered on Earth are mainly distributed in northern America, northern Asia, and eastern Africa. China has a long history of natural soda. There were sporadic mining records during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, and large-scale development began in the Qing Dynasty in the alkali lakes of Yikezhao League in Inner Mongolia, where natural soda was boiled into "ingot soda" (commonly known as "mouth soda") and sold to North China. The development and utilization of Dabusu Lake in Jilin Province began in the early 20th century. Sporadic soda factories were scattered in Inner Mongolia and Northeast China, and until the early 20th century, they were still mainly workshop-style production, with an annual output of about 1,000 tons. The Green River fluorspar deposit is the largest proven natural soda deposit in the world. Located in the Green River area of Wyoming, USA, it was discovered during oil and gas exploration in 1938. Starting in 1947, various companies began mining and processing soda ash in Green River. OCI Company, TG Soda Company, and Solvay, among others, established factories in Green River to produce soda ash from the 1960s to the 1980s. Currently, all soda ash produced in the United States is derived from natural soda. The soda ash production in the Green River area accounts for more than 85% of the total in the United States.
The industrialization of China's natural soda began in the mid-20th century. By the early 1960s, the production and quality of soda from soda lakes declined, leading the natural soda industry into a period of depression. With the reform and opening-up, economic development returned to a normal track, and natural soda resources in places like Xilingol League, Yikezhao League in Inner Mongolia, and Nanyang in Henan gradually entered the development phase. However, due to the complexity of resource distribution and limitations in mining and processing technologies, the industry remained small in scale. The rapid development of China's natural soda industry was driven by historic breakthroughs in mining and processing technologies. In 1978, the "Yikezhao League Natural Soda Research Group" was established. In 1982, a team led by Mr.Li Wu spent four years in arduous research and successfully developed the "solar drying process for soda fields," earning the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This achievement paved a new path for the industrialization of research results on the development and utilization of low-grade natural soda deposits, ushering in the 1.0 era of China's natural soda mining and processing technologies. By the late 1990s, Yihua entered Tongbai, Henan, and built a soda factory leveraging the region's abundant natural soda resources. After Bo Yuan took over, it established a natural soda industrial base with an annual production capacity of 2 million tons of soda ash and 1 million tons of baking soda, earning Tongbai County the reputation of being the "Capital of China's Natural Soda." During this period, through systematic scientific research and technological breakthroughs, the industry overcame the challenges of coexistence of mineral salts, alkali, and nitrate in natural soda deposits and the separation of complex components, marking the entry into the 2.0 era of China's natural soda mining and processing technologies. In December 2025, after five years of arduous efforts, Bo Yuan Group developed the large-scale natural soda deposit in Alxa Tamsui, completing a major project with a production capacity exceeding 10 million tons of soda ash and baking soda. This project represents the culmination of Boyuan's nearly 50 years of natural soda development, achieving new heights in technology, equipment, quality, output, cost, and environmental protection, marking the entry of China's natural soda mining and processing technology into the 3.0 era. Its ultra-low salt content and high-quality soda ash purity reach 99.9%. In June 2025, with the successful auction of Tongliao's natural soda resources, another large-scale natural soda project with a capacity of tens of millions of tons was launched. By the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's annual production capacity of soda ash by the soda process will exceed 20 million tons, with a market share expected to surpass 60%, accelerating the restructuring of the global soda ash market landscape.
Technology leadership, resource reliance, and green development are the inevitable paths for the development of China's natural soda industry. With continuous breakthroughs in natural soda resource exploration, especially the discovery of the super-large natural soda deposit in Xinjiang, the broad prospects of China's natural soda industry have been revealed. Under the guidance of the national dual-carbon strategy, the natural soda industry is undergoing iterative upgrades to the 4.0 era through the coupling of new energy and digital intelligence empowerment, driving the global soda industry toward a more environmentally friendly and sustainable direction. This marks the entry of China's soda industry into a new era dominated by natural soda. China's natural soda to soda industry has embarked on a century-long journey of self-reliance and innovation-led development, contributing China's solutions to the green development of the global soda industry.
(Important time, events, and related materials mentioned in the text refer to relevant online resources and books such as "China Natural Alkali Industry" and "Natural Alkali Deposit Development"; images are sourced from: Wikipedia, Tianjin Binhai New Area Museum, and Boyuan Group Archives; if there are any shortcomings, we welcome suggestions for improvement.)
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