Salt: Cradle to Grave

Catarina Hinojos
Race, Poverty and the Urban Environment
Professor Raquel R. Pinderhughes
Urban Studies Program
San Francisco State University,
spring 2003
Public has permission to use the
material herein, but only if author,
course, university and professor are
credited.
This presentation focuses on the life
cycle of Salt, cradle to grave, with
emphasis on social, environmental
and public health impacts associated
with it.
• The extraction process • Distribution of salt
• Distribution of • Health Impacts
materials needed to • And the waste
produce salt resulting from salt
production
The Extraction Process of Salt

There are four types of Extraction

• Rock salt mining

• Solar salt mining
• Solution mining
• Vacuum Pan Salt
Refining
 Rock Salt Mining
salt-cycle

image002

• Rock salt mining occurs naturally in underground

deposits salt
image002

• Occasionally in surface deposits in arid areas, as the

mineral halite
• Salt is physically dug out of the ground in an
operation involving drilling, blasting, exploding and
crushing the rock
Rock salt mine
Cargill.com
Rock salt mine
Cargill.com
Rock salt mine
dredge.com
Halite/rock salt
Saltinstitute.com
Rock salt beds/layers one meter thick
Saltinfo.com
 salt-layers

merkers-startbild

A rock salt mine turned into a tourist attraction

Americanrocksalt.com
 Solar Salt Mining

• Salt is produced by allowing the sun to evaporate

sea water in shallow pools or ‘pans’.
• Both temperature and salinity are important
• The water evaporates in successive ponds until
the brine is fully concentrated and salt
crystallizes on the floor of the crystallizing ponds
dredge.com
 OWENS7

Solar produced salt discolored by bacteria in the

ponds nasalt.com
Solar salt pond with red brine
Salt-mine.com
The Alberger® brand salt is produced with the
evaporating process alberger.com
This is an aerial view of salt ponds
Cargill.com
Great Salt Lake Minerals
Ogden, Utah
Solar Pond Facility
Saltinfo.com
Solar salt mushrooms growing in the
Dead Sea Salt.org
NATURAL SALT PRODUCTION OF SAN JACINTO

It is a realization of natural technical character practiced

by dozens of residents of Charapoto community, in which
the manual techniques of production of salt in the mineral
sources of San Jacinto are shown to the tourists
 Solution Salt Mining
• When salt deposits are located fresh, recycled
water is injected through a well drilled into an
underground salt bed or salt dome
• Dissolution of the salt forms a cavern in the salt
deposit
• Salt brine is withdrawn from the cavern and then
transported by pipeline to an onsite evaporating
plant to make dry salt, or to a chemical processing
plant for chlor-alkali or other chemical production
Solution Salt scheme
Mininglife.com
This solution mining cavern, is where water is injected into
a salt formation and brine is withdrawn kgs.ukans.edu
brine well and cavity
kgs.ukans.edu
Solution salt dome
Saltinstitute.com
Solution-Mined Cavern
Storage
pbworld.com
Mineral
Recovery
pbworld.com
Solution Mining Wellhead
Pbworld.com
Surface features at a West Texas disposal cavern
npto.doe.gov
After salt is mined producers use caverns to store
hydrocarbon substances, this is a map of them in Texas
utexas.edu
 Vacuum Pan Salt Refining
• Vacuum Pan Salt Refining produces table salt
• Prior to mechanical evaporation, the brine may be
treated to remove minerals that can cause scaling
in the evaporators and adversely affect salt purity
• Chemical treatment of the brine, followed by
settling, reduces levels of dissolved calcium,
magnesium and sulfate
• Sulfuric acid treatment or chlorination may be
used to remove hydrogen sulfide, and
hydrochloric acid will neutralize brine used in
diaphragm cell production of chlorine and caustic
soda
• Water is evaporated from purified brine using
multiple-effect or vapor recompression
evaporators
• Steam from boilers supplies heat evaporators and
is fed from one evaporator to the next
• Vapor recompression forced-circulation
evaporators consist of a crystallizer, compressor
and vapor scrubber
• Feed brine enters the crystallizer vessel where salt
is precipitated
• Vapor is withdrawn, scrubbed and compressed for
reuse in the heater
Vacuum evaporator
Saltinstitute.com
Saltinstitute.com
Lyons, Kansas
Vacuum Salt Facility
Saltinfo.com
Distribution of Materials Needed
to Produce Salt

• Salt is produced naturally in the

environment so the only tools needed are
for movement of the mineral
– This includes pipes, conveyor belts, trucks,
roads, in some cases explosives
• And purifying agents for table salt
– This includes boilers, chemicals and
evaporation equipment
Conveyor belt that transport salt to vehicle
Cargill.com
Underground vehicle that transports salt
Cargill.com
Underground salt mine
Cargill.com
 Distribution of Salt

• Packages containing salt usually get

transported by trucks
• Salt is used in three sectors
– Deicing products
• melt ice and snow on roads
– Commercial and industry
• manufacture chlorine, caustic soda and in
paper making
– Domestic (table salt)
Mortonsalt.com
Deicing rock salt for snow and ice control
geo.msu.edu
 Health Impacts

• Workers environments vary on what type of

salt production they are involved with
– But all employees are exposed to heavy
machinery
– Some employees are exposed to explosives and
chemicals
• Consumers are also exposed to health hazards too
much salt can cause illness
– high blood pressure
– heart attack
– stroke
• When deicing salt is used on roads there tends to
be a run off of water thus transporting salt into
ground water
– This causes a bitter taste in drinking water
– The increase of salt in the soil isn’t good for
crops and natural vegetation
Miner digging for salt
Dredge.com
Saltinstitute.com
 Waste Resulting from the
Production of Salt

• The main waste that seems to be visible in all salt

mines is the impact of heavy machinery on the
landscape
• The waste from chemicals, explosives and trucks
• Another factor is the destruction of natural
habitats to build unnatural salt ponds
Rods and wires nailed into natural caverns
Dredge.com
 Web References
• www.utexas.edu • www.mii.org
• www.solutionmining.org • www.geo.msu.edu
• www.salt-mine.org • www.cargill.com
• www.saltinstitute.com • www.americanrocksalt.com
• www.saltinfo.com • www.npto.doe.gov
• www.mininglife.com • www.nasalt.com