Salt evaporation pond

A Saline is a plant for the production of salt.

A distinction

• Solar salt works, which release as applied or natural salt marshes, the salt by evaporation of sea water.
• Salinas, win the evaporated salt by evaporation of a mostly underground manufactured or derived from a natural source brine.

Term

The German -speaking countries is remarkably the only one who used the Salinas term for two completely different kinds of salt. In other language areas, the term is used exclusively for the production of salt by evaporation of sea water. The boiling of the brine as a follow-up process there has no independent significance.

Are referred to as non- saline

• Desalination plants for sea water in which the salt is obtained as a by-product,
• Salt mines, in which the salt is mechanically removed in the mining process.

To be distinguished from salt flats are salt works, where the salinity of the brine was increased by evaporation in order to save precious fuel. Saline graduation tower and together are referred to in the art as salt works.

Solar salt works ( salt marshes )

Technology

The technique to extract the salt from sea water has changed little over the centuries. Saline solution flows from a higher pool slowly in a little deeper located and from there to the respective next. From basin to basin rises because of the evaporated by sunlight water, the salt content of the brine, until finally the saturation concentration is reached. Crystalline salt (mainly sodium chloride), precipitates and sinks to the bottom. Saturating the liquor for many other marine salts such as magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, is not reached, it will remain dissolved in the liquor. The remaining water is either reused for the remaining salts or simply back out into the sea. Solar salt works are the cheapest form of salt production. Due to the inferior quality they provide only about a quarter of the world's salt production.

The economic organization of the salt marshes corresponded to the long time of farms. Many French small businesses rarely include more than 2 ha of floor space and thus offer only a sideline for the salt workers working there. Increasingly, major international companies as the Compagnie des Salins du Midi et des Salines de l' Est in southern France and comparable companies in the U.S. form.

Dissemination

Solar salt works naturally occur only in coastal regions. For a successful operation several requirements are necessary.

• High salinity of coastal waters for a good yield, not on the Baltic Sea, as this is a brackish sea.
• Flat banks to create large salt marshes can.
• Intensive and regular sunlight for a sufficient supply of heat and evaporation.
• Enough wind to replace the humid air by " receptive " dry.
• Little rain, only a single heavy rain can solve the "harvest" of weeks.

In Europe one finds salt flats in Brittany on the French Atlantic coast, the Black and the Mediterranean, here at Salin- de -Giraud, the solar salt or the salt pans of Ston saltpans. There they are, however, among other things, on the Canary Islands, on the China Sea, the Indian Ocean and at locations in Central and South America. A few can be found even further north, such as in the Bay of San Francisco.

As a special feature there was in Germany a saline in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant in Stade in Lower Saxony, it was operated by the district. With the shutdown of the power plant in 2004, the saline was adjusted.

In eastern Tibet and the northern Yunnangebirge existing there salt springs are used in saline basins for salt extraction.

Siedesalinen

Siedesalinen account for the largest proportion of salt production in industrialized countries. The final product salt is produced as a residue from the evaporation of a brine (brine). To prepare the brine fresh water is pumped under high pressure into underground rock salt deposits in many salt pans. Once the salt has dissolved, the brine is to evaporate in a saltern pumped back to the top ( as in the Swiss Rhine Salt Works ). It used to be natural brines were used from saline sources. However, since these are extremely rare, this method plays in today's industrial production only a minor role.

The salt obtained in the evaporation of the brine is named Sudsalz or vacuum salt, so the buildings are also referred to as Brewhouses or Siedehäuser. In Austria until the end of the 19th century according to the equipment used, the term Pfannhaus used. The pans for evaporating the water were formerly owned by the panner. In large companies today closed systems are used that achieve better efficiency.

Today, an estimated 70 percent of world consumption are obtained from rock salt, with more accurate information is difficult, as many producing countries do not report the source of their salt. The production facilities are often in the hands of large multinational companies such as Cargill or Compass Minerals International. In Germany saltworks currently operates five. Along with the salt mines, the total production volume in 2003 approximately 14.1 million tonnes of salt.

Boiling pan of Saline Luisenhall

Former Saline in Bad Zurzach ( Switzerland )

Salt boiling in a reconstructed medieval Saline, Schwäbisch Hall

Sculpture of a medieval salt boiler on the Salzhof in Bad Salzuflen

Old Salt Works in Bad Reichenhall, main Brunnhaus

After-use

Many historic salt mines have been abandoned after the solution mining for economic reasons and are forfeited if there is no subsequent use. In Halle ( Saale), one finds the 1719-1721 established and regularly restored Saline at Halle Salzwirker. In the buildings of the Hallorenring and Saline museum hall, which regularly hosts the historic salt mining is presented in the form of a Schausiedens is. In the north Hessian spa town of Allendorf is in the midst of the city a well-preserved and maintained Saline. It was extensively restored during the last 10 years and partly integrated in a thermal spa. A positive example of a successful use of the existing building which is under protection ensemble Old Salt Works in Bad Reichenhall. A local developer has purchased the Brunnhaus together with its connected Brewhouse, magazines and workshops. The so-called Quellenbau itself still exists unchanged with the art of the early 19th century and can be visited on guided tours. The remaining buildings have been carefully renovated and now house a medical center, a pharmacy, retail establishments, restaurants, the Reichenhaller Academy and the magazine 4, which is used for cultural events.