Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL) was incorporated on 29th March, 1973 in the State of Gujarat by Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation Limited (GIIC), a wholly owned company of Govt. of Gujarat, as a Core Promoter.

The Company commenced its operations in 1976 with 37,425 MTPA Caustic Soda Plant based on the then, state-of-the-art Mercury Cell process at its Plant which is situated 16 km North of Vadodara near Village Ranoli on the main Railway track route between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

GACL has two units located at Vadodara and Dahej , both in the State of Gujarat. It has integrated manufact. facilities for Caustic Soda, Chlorine, Hydro. Gas, Hydrochloric Acid, Chloromethanes, Hydro. Peroxide, Phosphoric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Potassium Carbonate, Sodium Cyanide, Sodium Ferrocyanide. The Dahej unit also has 90 MW Captive Power Plant (CPP) for regular and economical power supply.

Right from the inception, GACL has been following the strategy of continuous capacity expansion in core areas. The first stage expansion of the Caustic Soda Plant raising the capacity to 70,425 MTPA was undertaken in October, 1981 followed by a diversification programme to produce 2000 MTPA of Sodium Cyanide in December, 1982.

In 1984, the second stage expansion to increase the capacity of Caustic Soda Plant to 103,425 MTPA was undertaken. Simultaneously, the Company undertook the diversification project for manufacture of 10,560 MTPA of Chloromethanes using Chlorine, a co-product of the Company and in 1991, the capacity of Chloromethanes production was doubled.

Since production of Caustic Soda is highly power intensive, in order to reduce power cost and to eliminate mercury pollution, the Company during the year 1989 converted one of its Cell Houses producing Caustic Soda from Mercury Cell Technology to environment friendly Membrane Cell Technology, thereby eliminating the use of mercury. The Capacity of Caustic Soda was also increased to 132000 MTA.

The conversion of second Mercury Cell to Membrane Cell was carried out during March, 1994, thereby eliminating the total use of mercury from the Complex for production of Caustic Soda and increasing the capacity of plant along with this conversion to 170000 MTA including Potassium Hydroxide facility.

As part of this Membrane Cell Conversion Project, a new facility for manufacture of 16500 MTA of Potassium Hydroxide Lye based on Membrane Cell was also set up. The Company has further set up facility for converting part of this Caustic Potash Lye into Potassium Carbonate with a capacity of 13200 MTA.

As power is the major input for production of Caustic Soda and constitutes about 65% - 70% of the cost of production, the Company alongwith other Corporations like M/s. GSFC, Petrofils Co-operative Ltd. and Gujarat Electricity Board promoted a gas based power unit in Vadodara under the name of Gujarat Industrial Power Company Ltd. (GIPCL) during the year 1985. As a promoter of GIPCL, the Company gets low cost power, as the plant is gas based and is depreciated.

In 1995, as a part of diversification programme and to meet the growing demand of its products in the State of Gujarat and nearby areas, the Company had set up a plant for manufacture of Technical Grade Phosphoric Acid with capacity of 26400 MTA (85% Phosphoric Acid) at a new location at Dahej, District Bharuch. GACL-NALCO Chemicals Limited (GNAL) is a Joint Venture with NALCO, that is setting up a Membrane Cell based grass root Caustic-Chlorine Unit with a capacity of 100000 MTA at Dahej. Along with this, a captive 130 (2*65) MW co-generation Power Plant is also being set up so as to ensure uninterrupted and low cost power for its captive operations.

In order to add further value to its products, the company had set up manufacturing facility for production of 11000 MTA Hydrogen Peroxide (100%) at Vadodara Complex during the year 1996 to utilize Hydrogen gas, which is a co-product from Caustic Soda Process.