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When one becomes two
It is almost two years since Belgian speciality chemicals maker Syensqo came into being after the split of Belgian chemical company Solvay into two independent companies. Editor Tim Probert visits Lyon in France, where it recently inaugurated a cutting-edge microbiology laboratory to find out more about the company’s past, present and future
The history of Syensqo is complex. It can be traced all the way back to 1863, when Belgian industrial chemist Ernest Solvay invented a new process to produce sodium carbonate, also known as soda ash, for use in the manufacture of glass, paper, soap and detergents. Solvay established his first factory near
Charleroi, Belgium in 1863, and further perfected the process until 1872, when he patented it. Soon, further Solvay process plants were established in the US, the UK, Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Austria. Before the First World War, Solvay was the
largest multinational company in the world. Ernest Solvay used his considerable wealth for philanthropic purposes, including founding the Institut des Sciences Sociales at the Free University of Brussels, the International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, and the Solvay Business School. In 1911, he began the Solvay Conferences,
which were devoted to preeminent unsolved problems in both physics and chemistry, and which continue to the present day. The fifth Solvay Conference in 1927, which discussed the newly formulated quantum theory, is said to be the most important meeting in the history of physics. Seventeen of the 29 attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners, including Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Max Planck and Niels Bohr (see photo overleaf). Solvay’s success continued throughout the
20th century. In 1969, Solvay technology was used for the Apollo 11 mission, which landed humans on the Moon for the first time. Solvay’s ablative materials were used in the heat shield of the command module, protecting the spacecraft from the extreme heat during re- entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Splitting up By the 1990s, the Syensqo family tree starts to get more complicated. Rhône-Poulenc was a French company formed by the 1928 merger of Paris-based pharmacists Poulenc Frères (Poulenc Brothers) and Société des Usines Chimiques du Rhône (Society of Rhône Chemical Factories) of Lyon. Rhône-Poulenc itself was to merge in 1999 with German life sciences company Hoechst to
www.personalcaremagazine.com
Michael Radossich, Syensqo Performance & Care Division President (left); Thomas Canova, Head of Corporate R&I and Renewables Materials and Biotechnology Platform (centre); Jean-Francis Spindler, Lyon R&I Centre Director (right)
August 2025 PERSONAL CARE
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