There was a time, one could say ‘Norit is activated carbon’ and that would tell the whole story. On January 28, 1918, Norit was incorporated as the NV Algemene Norit Maatschappij - General Norit Company - and was granted royal approval just four month later. Since then, the company has undergone numerous changes. While today, you can still say ‘Norit is activated carbon’ that no longer tells the entire story. Norit has become much more than just activated carbon.

Norit’s name goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, a vegetable decoloration carbon consisting of 96 to 98 percent pure carbon known as ‘noir épuré’, ‘eponit’ or ‘norit’ was used in the sugar  refining process. Dr. A. Wijnberg, who joined the School for the Sugar Industry, came up with the idea that this particular decoloration carbon could be used for sugar refining. What started out as an odd idea was really the first small step in the subsequent development of activated carbon and its practical application in various industries. And most importantly, this idea eventually led to the founding of the Norit Company.

Norit Americas
Norit was always quite entrepreneurial when it came to expanding, and from the very beginning, Norit investigated possibilities in the United States. In 1933, the first factory in the U.S. was established in Jacksonville, Florida, in cooperation with the German Verein für Chemische Industrien, which at the time was Norit’s business partner. A year later, the American Norit Company started production of activated carbon from charcoal obtained by incinerating pine tree stumps. In 1966, production was halted, but the American Norit Company remained in existence as a sales organization. In 1984, Norit purchased Darco and its production facility in Marshall, Texas. Darco produced activated carbon from lignite and had a market share of 20 to 25 percent in the U.S., and exported to Canada, Europe and Latin America. Within short time, the developments of Darco, which became part of the American Norit Company - later renamed to Norit Americas - exceeded all expectations. The take over of the activated carbon factory in Pryor, Oklahoma from Elf Atochem North Americas, Inc. in 1996 represented a fivefold increase in the Norit’s capacity for producing granular activated carbon from coal.

Wind of change
Norit remained a carbon-only company until the 1990s. In Norit’s traditional markets, which included the chemical and foodstuff industries, the demand for activated carbon declined, due in part to the fact that granular carbon increasingly replaced powdered carbon and more use was made of membrane technology for purification. With market situations changing and an organization, which could be described as patriarchal and hierarchical, it became clear that Norit had to change its attitude. In order to adapt to the challenges in the changing market environment, it had to become more aggressive, innovative and flexible. Norit shifted from a product-oriented to a market-oriented philosophy, from centralized to decentralized profit accountability, from a fragmented to an integrated organization and, most importantly, from a single product focus to a diverse product line. This meant that Norit no longer could profile itself as an activated carbon producer, but instead as a company offering a wide range of purification solutions to the market.

Process technology division
A quickly formed Norit think tank studied various aspects of alternative purification methods and found that membrane technology seemed to be a strategic add-on to activated carbon. The next step was to expand the company in that direction. At the end of 1996, Norit took over the Dutch Leushuis, which brought liquid flow process systems expertise to the company. Leushuis’ partnership with X-Flow BV added membrane technology to Norit’s offerings and in 1997 Norit purchased X-Flow. These additions were the foundation for Norit’s process technology division and expansion into the beer, beverage and water purification industries. Norit’s developing process technology division was further strengthened with the acquisition of Dutch Haffmans BV, supplier of CO₂ systems and quality control equipment to the brewing and beverage industries and the German valve manufacturer Südmo Holding GmbH, in 1998. In 1999, Leushuis Projects & Engineering was renamed to Norit Process Technology BV, specializing in the supply of beer membrane filtration technology, and the integration of all Norit components and systems into state-of-the-art beer processing plants. In many countries around the world, the infrastructure to supply safe drinking water at the tap is not reliable. In these situations, point-of-use (POU) or point-of-entry (POE) water purifiers are the solution. Filtrix BV, acquired in 2002, specializes in the development and supply of filter cartridges and compact water systems using Norit technologies “inside”, such as membranes and activated carbon. The addition of Dutch Nijhuis Pompen BV, which specializes in water pumps and fire fighting sets for a large variety of applications, in 2006, enables Norit to serve every part of the water value chain.

New corporate feeling
The year 2005 marked the changeover to a new corporate identity. With eight different companies successfully integrated under the Norit umbrella, the group had to re-organize and strengthen its appearance in order to be recognized as one unified international brand. One of the main challenges was to create a unique and uniform appearance without cropping the wings of each Norit business unit. Successfully, the new corporate design covers the span between the interests of the Norit Group as a whole and the independence of each business unit.

Today, Norit’s customers greatly benefit from the synergy effects within the group. Cross-selling is a tremendous driving factor, not only with regard to the business units but to an even larger extent for the growing number of Norit Sales & Service Centers worldwide. As always, Norit’s leadership is looking ahead and exploring new applications and possibilities to further strengthen and grow their business. In addition, at Norit we strongly believe that our purification technologies help society meet environmental, health and
safety challenges for a sustainable future, as we look forward to the next 90 years...

 

Clean water for the world
In recent years, water has become, more than ever, one of the most valuable commodities on earth. Norit realized this and the proprietary Norit X-Flow membrane technology allowed Norit to be in a position to meet market demand. Norit X-Flow membranes are found in installations all over the world and at virtually all landmark projects in the industry. They are either in original equipment manufacturers systems or in Norit’s own systems and solutions, such as in Norit Membrane Technology’s water purification systems, in Norit Process Technology’s Beer Membrane Filtration or, in Norit Filtrix’ POU or POE solutions. Together with Norit’s activated carbon and other purification technologies, this accounts for the fact that more than eight percent of the world’s population – over half a billion people - already consumes water purified by Norit.