Brunner Mond took over the works on 22 April 1920, in an agreement with the Minister of Munitions, Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth.

Other plants copied were at Sheffield, Alabama, La Grande-Paroisse, and one owned by General Chemical near New York.

In December 1926, ICI was formed from the merger of Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company and the British Dyestuffs Corporation, largely controlled by Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, and Harry McGowan, 1st Baron McGowan.

[2] From 1929 the Bergius process was developed to hydrogenate carbon (coal) and make synthetic petrol, with production starting in 1935.

In the 1950s ICI developed technology to convert naphtha to hydrogen by reacting with steam over a catalyst in tubes in a furnace.

The new Kellogg technology synthesised ammonia at only 150 bar, about half that used in other processes, resulting in greatly improved energy efficiency.

The new plants took some time to overcome teething problems with the new technology but eventually became the key part of the factory, which for many years was the world's largest ammonia production site.

In the late 1970s, ICI developed a fermentation process that converted methanol to artificial protein called Pruteen, intended to be used as animal feed.

[4] A commercial production unit was built on Belasis Avenue, a short distance to the main Billingham site.

In the early 1980s, British musician Eric Woolfson paid a visit to the factory having been invited by the then ICI chairman John Harvey-Jones.

It would end up being photographed for the front cover for The Alan Parsons Project's seventh studio album, which was also named after the place.

[5] The last major investment at Billingham was a large nitric acid plant with a capacity of 1000 tonnes per day that started operation in 1985.

This was mostly due to pressure of low-price competition from regions of the world with much lower costs of natural gas feed.

In 2002 ICI sold the catalyst and technology licensing business that was headquartered at Billingham to Johnson Matthey for £267 million.

In the Second World War, atomic research also took place on the site, under the codename Tube Alloys, whereby uranium hexafluoride was made.