In 1916 Alphonse Cappuyns began research at the University of Louvain into producing citric acid by fermenting sugar. Entrepreneurs perceived this development as a business opportunity for the local sugar industry. Given the first, very promising, results “Les Produits Organiques de Tirlemont” (P.O.T.) was established in 1919.

The first fermentation chamber was filled with 1,300 kg of sugar and seeded with citromyces. Unfortunately, the first yields were extremely low. Even after some improvements, this new fermentation process could not compete with the lemon refining industry, based mainly in Sicily. In October 1925, P.O.T. had to cease its production activities.

Despite this setback, Alphonse Cappuyns continued to believe in the eventual success of his approach and began his research once again, this time using a new micro-organism: Aspergillus niger.

With this second attempt, he achieved a production yield that justified industrial operations. In 1929, a Belgian - Italian joint venture was established : La Citrique Belge. The Belgian know-how in fermentation was combined with the Italian know-how in refining citric acid.

In 1947, fermentation of molasses - a by-product of the local sugar refinery - was introduced as a replacement of the fermentation of the much more expensive pure sugar. At the same time, the Italian joint venture partners left the company and La Citrique Belge became 100% Belgian.

In 1977, Citrique Belge became a member of the Swiss pharmaceutical group F. Hoffmann La Roche. Citric acid was a good addition to the product portfolio of the leading supplier of vitamins to the food industry. The company expanded production to over 112.000 ton/year and started a joint-venture with a Chinese plant in Wuxi.

In 2003, Citrique Belge was sold to DSM. After some improvements in the production organization and an increase of the capital, the capacity rose to 120.000 ton and the Chinese plant was closed.

In October 2010, Citrique Belge became a member of the ADCURAM Group.  Important investments were done not only in refinery but also in fermentation and waste water treatment. 

End of 2016, Citrique Belge was acquired by an international group of private investors.  These private investors all share a common long term vision of creating profitable growth in specific industrial companies via a quality-driven operational management, strategic orientation and a close, enduring relationship with its B2B customers. 

Being a stand-alone investment, Citrique Belge now enjoys the autonomy to continue to invest in fermentation, downstream processing, quality, product development, sales and logistics to remain a reliable supplier of citric acid and its derivative products - providing excellent service, technical expertise and quality products - in the many years to come. 

After several important reorganizations and major investments to modernize and optimize the production processes, Citrique Belge is, today one of the largest and most efficient citric acid producers in the world.

In 1916, Mr Alphonse Cappuyns lived with his young wife near the pharmacy of his parents in law. Inspired by the lack of available citric acid for the pharmacy due to the first World War, Mr Cappuyns began researching the possibility of producing citric acid without lemons. His academic background as a fermentation specialist encouraged him to try and implement a German theory from the 19th century, which in essence claimed that citric acid could be produced by fermenting sugar. His first findings were negative: the theory was only theory and could not be turned into reality. But persevering as he was, he kept trying to find other organisms and experimented with a wide variety of process circumstances, which slowly led to first results.

1916

Based on these first results, “Les Produits Organiques de Tirlemont” (P.O.T.) was founded in 1919. A small first fermentation chamber was filled and seeded with spores. Unfortunately, the citric acid yields were lower than expected, but many improvements were made in the next few years.

1919

Despite these improvements, the new fermentation process could still not compete with the Italian lemon refining industry, and in 1925 P.O.T. was forced to halt its production activities. Mr Alphonse Cappuyns however continued to believe in the success of his approach and pursued his research. Barely three months later, using yet another micro-organism, he achieved a production yield that justified industrial operations and P.O.T. restarted production.

1925

In 1929, Belgian know-how in fermentation was combined with Italian know-how in refining citric acid. A Belgian-Italian joint venture was established: “La Citrique Belge”. Today, the combination of both areas of expertise still forms the backbone of our high-quality products and applications.

1929

Almost 20 years later, in 1947, the Italian partners left the company and Citrique Belge became 100% Belgian. The Belgians continued to improve the fermentation process. In 1948, the process expertise was sufficiently evolved to replace sugar as a raw material with less expensive sugar molasses. Hence, Citrique Belge became a circular company in its core, by upcycling a sidestream from another industry. During the following decades, fermentation yields, and production volumes slowly continued to increase.

1947

Between 1977 and 2016, under the leadership and expertise of various subsequent owners, such as F. Hoffman La Roche, DSM and Adcuram, various capital increases and strong investments in production capacity were made. From an early stage, wastewater treatment was considered important and various investments were made to improve Citrique Belge’s wastewater cycle. Also, the high volumes and wide variety of valuable co-products became more and more important.

1977

In 2016, Citrique Belge was acquired by a group of private Belgian investors and became an independent company again. These private investors all shared the vision of creating a long-term profitable company, with the balanced interests of all stakeholders in mind, equally focusing on citric acid and all the co-products.

2016

With circularity and sustainability at its historical core, Citrique Belge develops into Citribel, an industrial producer and innovative expert in various bioprocesses, resulting in a wide variety of natural products for high-value applications.

2022