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The Salt Industry Worldwide
The annual world production of salt recently reached a massive 200 million tons. Approximately one-third of total production is by solar evaporation of sea water or inland brines (solar salt); another third is produced mining rock salt deposits, both underground and on the surface (rock salt); and the balance is gathered as brines, mainly by solution mining. Brines can be used directly or thermally evaporated to produce vacuum salt.
|
Salt Type |
World production (tonnes per year)
|
|
Solar salt |
70,000,000 |
|
Rock salt |
60,000,000
|
|
Brines |
70,000,000 |
The purity of washed solar salt can reach 99 to 99.5 per cent (NaCl, dry bases) in India and China, and 99.7 per cent in Australia and Mexico. The purity of processed rock salt fluctuates between 97 and 99 per cent plus in the USA and Europe. Vacuum salt is usually between 99.8 and 99.95 per cent pure.
The chemical industry is the largest consumer of salt using about 60% of total production. The industry predominantly converts the salt into chlorine, caustic and soda ash, without which petroleum refining, petrochemistry, organic synthesis, glass production and so on would not be possible.
The second largest user of salt is humankind. Humans need about 30% of total salt production to support their physiological functions and eating habits. Salt for food is the most 'taken for granted' commodity; available from thousands of sources in hundreds of qualities as table, cooking and industrial salt for food production.
About 10% of salt production is used for road de-icing, water treatment, production of cooling brines and other smaller applications.
|
Salt User |
Salt Consumption (%)
|
|
Chemical industry |
60
|
|
Food |
30
|
|
Other |
10 |
Whatever the use of salt, industrialised salt production worldwide is focused on the recovery of pure sodium chloride only, clear of all 'impurities'. The purer the salt, the more valuable it is. In the chemical industry any contamination of the sodium chloride feedstock may have serious, even lethal consequences. For example:
In the salt brine of electrolytic cells, excessive magnesium will cause hydrogen evolution on the anode. Hydrogen and chlorine form an explosive mixture. Explosion in the cells or in the chlorine liquefaction may damage the equipment and release chlorine to the environment. Chlorine gas is highly poisonous and dangerous. Stringent safety measures are taken in the chloralkali industry to avoid this happening but the elimination of magnesium is of prime concern. 
V. M. Sedivy, Salex Salt Refining Process Report, Krebs Swiss, Zurich Switzerland.
The 'impurities' in natural salt that the chemical industry refer to are any mineral or organic elements other than the single chemical, sodium chloride. Sea water contains an extraordinary number of other mineral elements in a complex and dynamic natural equilibrium (refer: The geochemistry of sea water). It is exactly these other constituents that Cea Products is determined to retain in Cea Ocean Mineral Superfood.
The crystal salt used in the processed food industry, whether stored in silos or used in a shaker, must retain free-flowing properties. Magnesium on the surface of the crystals absorbs humidity from the air and makes the salt damp. Silos cannot be emptied and shaker holes get blocked. The salt loses market and value. To overcome these hurdles, the industry adds free-flowing agents 341 and 554, and anti-caking agents 535 and 536, along with processed inorganic iodine in the form of potassium iodide.
