In August 1914, the First World War caused a decrease in the amount of soda ash imported into China, and factories in Tianjin, Shanghai and other places that used soda ash as raw material were suspended. At that time, the world's alkali production industry had a history of more than a hundred years, but at that time, China relied on "sodium alkali" that was dissolved into alkaline water and then condensed into blocks for food. This "mouth alkali" is of poor quality, expensive and extremely unhygienic. At the end of the 19th century, "oceanic alkali" began to be dumped into China. Since the country could not produce alkali, a large amount of gold flowed out.

In 1914, on the basis of establishing the Jiuda Refined Salt Factory, Fan Xudong was determined to "turn salt into alkali" and established the "Yongli Alkali Production Company", pioneering the alkali production industry in China. At that time, the British company Benemen, which monopolized Solvay's alkali production technology, was worried that Wynn Soda Production Company would squeeze out its market in China if it successfully produced soda. Therefore, it proposed to "cooperate" with Wynn Soda Production Company to achieve the purpose of annexation, but was rejected. to rejection. The Yongli Alkali Plant adopted the world's advanced Solvay process alkali production technology, with a design capacity of 40 tons of soda ash per day. Machinery and equipment that can be made domestically are manufactured at the Shanghai Daxiao Iron Factory, while those that cannot be made are purchased from abroad. From 1918 to 1924, Wynn Soda Manufacturing Company began to recruit talents for the design and infrastructure of the soda plant. In November 1918, director Chen Tiaofu went to the United States and hired a consulting engineer W.D. Mount to be responsible for the design, but the actual design work was undertaken by Chinese students. Hou Debang, who was studying abroad in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in the United States at the time, readily accepted Chen Tiaofu's invitation in 1919 to participate in the design of the Wynn Soda Plant. In 1921, Hou Debang received his doctorate and was hired by Fan Xudong as an engineer at Wynn Soda Manufacturing Company. In 1923, most of the machinery and equipment in the alkali plant were installed, and individual machines were put into trial operation one after another. The raw salt used comes from the Changlu Salt Field, and the limestone and coal powder are supplied from the Tangshan Beijiadian Stone Mine and Kailuan Coal Mine respectively. On August 13, 1924, Wynn Alkali Plant started producing alkali for the first time. However, the alkaline red and black produced was unsaleable. In March of the following year, the drying pot of the main equipment burned out, causing the entire factory to shut down.

On June 29, 1926, the Wynn Alkali Plant restarted after re-commissioning and produced a snow-white product with a sodium carbonate content of more than 99%. In order to distinguish it from the "oral soda ash" produced by local methods and the imported "soda ash", Fan Xudong named his product "soda ash" and determined the "Red Triangle" brand trademark. At the World Exposition held in Philadelphia, USA, in August 1926, China's "Red Triangle" brand soda ash won the highest honor, the gold medal, and achieved the first export of chemical products produced in China. Later in 1930, "Red Triangle" soda ash won the gold medal at the Belgian Industrial and Commercial Exposition. The "Red Triangle Brand" soda ash produced by Yongli Soda Plant has been recognized twice internationally, laying the foundation for China's modern chemical industry. After the success of Wynn Soda Production, it faced the vicious competition from British companies and the exploitation by warlords and bureaucrats, and it was difficult to develop. In order to monopolize China's alkali market, the British businessman Company (Imperial Chemical Industries) took advantage of Britain's privileges in China. In 1924, after the Wynn Alkali Plant produced alkali for the first time, it ordered the salt hijacking through the British Foreign Secretary and its envoy to China. Ding En, an Englishman in charge of the general office, without the approval of the Chinese government, promulgated a taxation regulation on industrial salt, stipulating a tax of 20 cents per 100 kilograms of industrial salt, which increased the cost of a ton of alkali by 5 yuan and a growth rate of 15. In this regard, Wynn firmly protested and exposed it in many ways. After several twists and turns, Dean agreed to a one-year temporary exemption under the pressure of public opinion that year. In 1925, he agreed to a five-year extension. In 1930, it was agreed that the industrial salt used by the Wynn Soda Plant would be tax-free for 30 years.

Yongli Alkali Plant started operations for the second time on June 29, 1926. After producing first-class products, Bu Neimen Company adopted the method of significantly lowering the price of alkali, with the lowest price being reduced to 40% of the original price, in order to The market squeezed out Wynn Soda Manufacturing Company. In June 1925, Shanghai's English-language newspaper "Continental" published an article titled "Look at the British's vicious methods of destroying domestic products", accusing the British Benemen Company and calling on the public to support national industry and the Wynn Alkali Plant. At the same time, in order to cope with this unfavorable situation, Wynn counterattacked in the Japanese market in the same way, selling alkali at a price lower than that of Benemen Company in the Japanese market, causing Benemen Company to suffer huge losses.

Within a year, Bu Nemen was forced to proactively sue for peace and stated that he would “no longer arbitrarily lower prices” in the Chinese market in the future. In the early stages of its development, Wynn Soda Manufacturing Company's many battles with Bu Nemen Company ended in victory.

In the early days of its establishment and development, the alkali plant was still exploited by warlords and officials. Most of the raw materials and fuels required for production are transported by rail. Tanggu is an important military location, as well as a key station and port on the Beijing-Fenghuang Railway. Years of civil war have resulted in frequent military transportation. It is often not possible to send wagons to load materials for the alkali plant for many days, thus affecting production. In addition, warlords often imposed various transportation taxes. For example, the surtax on coarse salt is 20 times higher than that of the British Ding Enshang. Because transportation is often blocked, finished soda ash is often not shipped out in time. The extremely unstable social environment led to chaos in Tianjin's financial market. Bank interest rates increased, and Yongli Soda Plant had to borrow heavily at high interest rates to maintain operations. In 1932, Huanghai Chemical Industry Research Society received funding from the China Education and Culture Fund Board of Directors, namely the Boxer Indemnity, to establish and explore projects for the development of the ammonium sulfate industry. In 1933, Hou Debang's monograph "Manufacture of Soda" (English: Manufacture of Soda) was written in English and published by the American Chemical Society. The book revealed the century-old technical secrets of Solvay's process for making alkali, causing a sensation in the international chemical and chemical industry. It was recognized as a major contribution made by Chinese chemists to world civilization. Hou Debang was awarded the title of honorary member by the British Chemical Society. In 1934, Fan Xudong reorganized Yongli Alkali Production Company into Yongli Chemical Industry Company. With the alkali production industry at a leading level, he expanded his business scope. In 1935, he founded Yongli Ermium Factory in Nanjing to produce ammonium sulfate and other chemicals. In 1935, in order to solve the problem of brine refining in the Solvay method of alkali production, the Hai Chemical Industry Research Institute successively adopted the salt washing method, the roasted salt method, the lime soda ash method, the lime mirabilite method and the lime and ammonium carbonate method, and finally decided to use Lime and ammonium carbonate method. This method requires simple equipment and is consistent with the alkali production process. It is a major contribution to China's alkali production industry.