PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF NATURAL SALT FORMULATIONS FOR SEAWATER SUBSTITUTION, MINERAL FORTIFICATION

摘要

The present invention relates to natural crude salt formulations arid their cost-effective preparation. In particular, the invention discloses the fractionation of seawater into three fractions which can thereafter be suitably combined to reconstitute seawater in its pristine form for its various applications such as growth of marine microbes, flora and fauna in a marine environment, especially where such environments have to be created in locations far removed from the sea and/or where there is a requirement to modify the composition of seawater to better its performance. The fractions can also be blended appropriately to exclude the major constituent, namely sodium chloride, and thereby be useful for mineralization/re-mineralization of waters which are deficient in mineral nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulphate and bicarbonate including rain water and desalinated waters obtained through thermal/RO desalination. The invention can be practised most cost-effectively in solar salt works operated on sea brine.

主权项

1. A process for the preparation of natural salt formulation, wherein the process comprises the steps of:
(a) collection of sea brine of 2.5-4.0° Bé; (b) subjecting sea brine as obtained in step (a) to solar evaporation till 25° Bé density to obtain salt composition of fraction I which is substantially free of sodium chloride and contains calcium, sulphate and carbonate/bicarbonate as the main constituents, and a brine rich in sodium chloride and other constituents; (c) feeding the resultant brine of step (b) into another crystallizing pan and continuing solar evaporation of the saturated brine till the density reaches 28.5-31.0° Bé density to separate out much of the sodium chloride in the sea brine as fraction II, without being particularly concerned about the purity of sodium chloride, and leaving a mother liquor bittern largely free of NaCl; (d) harvesting the salt as obtained in step (c) in the open sun; (e) feeding the mother liquor bittern as obtained in step (c) into another crystallizing pan and continuing solar evaporation to close to solidification stage to obtain fraction III; (f) harvesting the salts crystallized as obtained in step (e); and (g) mixing the fractions (I), (II) and (III) as obtained in step (b), (d) and (f) in the proportions in which these are obtained to produce a natural salt formulation mimicking a dry sea or optionally; (h) mixing only the fractions (I) and (III) in ratio ranging between 1:3 to 1:6 to obtain natural salt formulations which are substantially free of sodium chloride while containing other constituents in the sea brine, particularly calcium, magnesium, potassium, carbonate/bicarbonate, sulphate and micronutrients.