Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Puthoor Mohandas Vadakke

Pushpito Kumar Ghosh

Mahesh Ramniklal Gandhi

Rahul Jasvantrai Sanghavi

Indrajit Mukhopadhyay

Abdulhamid Usmanbhai Hamidani

Venkata Rama Krishna Sarma Susarla

Kishor Manmohandas Majeethia

Jamnadas Naranbhai Parmar

Ajoy Murlidhar Bhatt

Shanti Amritlal Chauhan

Abdulhamid Usmanbhai Hamidini

Venkata Rama Susarla

The process of the invention deals with significant improvements in salt purity and whiteness brought about through treatment of brine with alum prior to charging into crystallizers for solar salt production. The improvements realized are partly on account of elimination of suspended impurities like gypsum and clayey matter in the brine, which may otherwise be carried along with the brine in the crystallizer and finally end up in the salt, and partly due to the improved crystal size and morphology that minimizes embedded impurities in the salt. Rain washing of the heaped salt has resulted in a salt with greatly reduced calcium and sulphate impurity levels hitherto not achieved in solar salt production. Alum treatment by the process of the invention requires no additional time or infrastructure and the cost of the treatment works out to &#x3c;3 U.S. cents per ton of salt. The process can be implemented in any solar salt works.

Process for the preparation of solar salt having high purity and whiteness

The present invention relates to a novel device that enables a person to gauge the brine density in solar salt works from afar without recourse to sampling of the brine. The device&#x2014;which can be considered as an improvisation over the conventional laboratory type Baume meter&#x2014;an be placed directly in the salt pa. The device remains sunk, and therefore invisible, until the desired density of brine is approached. Thereafter it gradually floats up and becomes visible from afar. From appropriate markings on the rod connected to the top end of the device, it can be gauged whether the brine is yet to attain the desired density, or has attained the desired density range, or has exceeded the desired density range. The device is resistant to corrosion and able to combat extreme weather conditions prevailing in solar salt works. The control of brine density from afar helps eliminate the need for frequent sampling of brine for density measurement that would make adherence to the optimum process of salt production easier. The methodology can be extended to production of other marine chemicals such as carnallite and kainite.

Device for estimation of brine density

Growing community of inventors

Gujarat, India

Puthoor Mohandas Vadakke