Investigation of an effective evaporation pond for sea salt extraction

Abstract

Salt (sodium chloride) is a food flavoring and seasoning agent, which plays a considerable role as an essential nutrient, texture provider, and color enhancer. However, the production of salt is insufficient to the nation, since between 10,000 and 40,000 metric tons of salt are imported annually. By examining the causes, it was identified that only a few companies are operating in Sri Lanka and using the solar evaporation method to produce salt. This research aims to make an improvement in salt production to meet the annual demand by identifying the key evaporation factors and making it more efficient by reducing time duration up to (20% -30%). Several crystallizer pools have been experimented with modifications; a pool covered with heat-absorbing material; a pool with a greenhouse model; a pool edge with a reflective panel; a pool with an instant roof system; and a sample of a salt plant pool was used as a reference to compare the improvement of salt production. The improvement rate in salt production of the above mentioned methods were found to be 7.66%; 21.42%; 22.74% and 36.69%, respectively, when compared with the reference crystallizer pool. Further temperature, humidity, wind speed, and brine concentration have been recorded on the daily basis.