<P> In the same year, Ludwig Mond visited Solvay in Belgium and acquired rights to use the new technology . He and John Brunner formed the firm of Brunner, Mond & Co., and built a Solvay plant at Winnington, near Northwich, Cheshire, England . The facility began operating in 1874 . Mond was instrumental in making the Solvay process a commercial success . He made several refinements between 1873 and 1880 that removed byproducts that could slow or halt the process . </P> <P> In 1884, the Solvay brothers licensed Americans William B. Cogswell and Rowland Hazard to produce soda ash in the US, and formed a joint venture (Solvay Process Company) to build and operate a plant in Solvay, New York . </P> <P> By the 1890s, Solvay process plants produced the majority of the world's soda ash . </P> <P> In 1938, large deposits of the mineral Trona were discovered near the Green River in Wyoming . Sodium carbonate can be mined from this source cheaper than it can be produced by the Solvay process . With the closing of the original Solvay, New York plant in 1986, there have been no Solvay - based plants operating in North America . Throughout the rest of the world the Solvay process remains the major source of soda ash . </P>

What is the name of the process when an acid and an alkali react