Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Synthetic sea salt

Synthetic sea salt

SnailsAttack - 10-2-2022 at 07:37

A study I did on producing synthetic sea salt. This was mostly a mathematics test.

Code:

= Synthetic sea salt

= Seawater composition in parts per thousand (mass fraction)
NA  Water     964.8    18.0 g/mol
17  Chloride   19.3    35.5 g/mol
11  Sodium     10.8    23.0 g/mol
NA  Sulfate     2.7    96.1 g/mol
12  Magnesium   1.3    24.3 g/mol
20  Calcium     0.4    40.1 g/mol
19  Potassium   0.4    39.1 g/mol
NA  Bicarbonate 0.15   61.0 g/mol
35  Bromide     0.07
NA  Borate      0.03
38  Strontium   0.01
9   Fluoride    0.001
3   Lithium     0.00017


= Seawater composition (moles)
NA  Water      53.6
17  Chloride    0.544
11  Sodium      0.470
NA  Sulfate     0.028
12  Magnesium   0.053
20  Calcium     0.01
19  Potassium   0.01
NA  Bicarbonate 0.0024 


11  Sodium      0.470
12  Magnesium   0.053
20  Calcium     0.01
19  Potassium   0.01

17  Chloride    0.544
NA  Bicarbonate 0.0024 
NA  Sulfate     0.028


one possible salt combination, 1 mole total:
0.94 mol  NaCl
0.075 mol MgCl₂
0.056 mol MgSO₄
0.03 mol  CaCl₂
0.02 mol  KCl

direct conversion from g/mol to g:
58.5 g NaCl
7.15 g MgCl₂
6.74 g MgSO₄
3.33 g CaCl₂
1.49 g KCl

10 grams total:
7.58 g NaCl
0.92 g MgCl₂
0.87 g MgSO₄
0.43 g CaCl₂
0.19 g KCl

I wonder which salts sea salt actually recrystallizes as. It's very interesting to me that table salt comprises only 75% of it.

[Edited on 2/10/2022 by SnailsAttack]

[Edited on 2/10/2022 by SnailsAttack]

SWIM - 10-2-2022 at 20:21

They crystalize sea salt in making table salt from seawater.
The mother liquor is called bittern, and has the bromine and iodine in it and lots of other stuff I don't recall.
If you google bittern (and avoid all the bird related definitions) you can probably find some analyses of what bittern has in it.
It probably varies a bit, as sea water varies a bit in salt content in some areas due to local minerals and degrees of concentration.
I've got some numbers for seawater from different places somewhere around here and will add to this post If I find them.

Plunkett - 11-2-2022 at 15:55

Here are some pages from a chemical engineering encyclopedia* on seawater processing which you may find interesting.

Edit: *Ulmann's Encyclopedia of industrial Chemistry

[Edited on 2/12/2022 by Plunkett]

Plunkett - 11-2-2022 at 15:57

Edit: Replaced photo with better quality screenshot

[Edited on 2/12/2022 by Plunkett]

Plunkett - 11-2-2022 at 18:43

[88] Central Research Institute, Japan Monopoly Corporation, Figures for Salt Production. Tokyo 1954.

Edit: Added reference and replaced graph with better quality screenshot

[Edited on 2/12/2022 by Plunkett]

SWIM - 12-2-2022 at 08:46

Was your scanner on mushrooms when it took that last picture?

Plunkett - 12-2-2022 at 08:54

I had digital access to the encyclopedia through my work, but I could not print or email myself pages so I took a photos of the computer monitor. It is not the best, but I also never expected to be sharing the photos.

[Edited on 2/12/2022 by Plunkett]

Texium - 12-2-2022 at 08:56

Useful info to be sure, but please learn how to take a screenshot on your computer… It is also good practice to state the title of the source rather than just saying “a chemical engineering encyclopedia.” I’d like to seek it out myself now, because I’m quite interested in seeing what they have to say on the page you didn’t post regarding recovery from the Great Salt Lake.

Plunkett - 12-2-2022 at 10:12

After looking at some of the other photos I took I believe it is Ulmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. I cannot find a PDF of the volume that discusses the Great Salt Lake (I think it was from the one on magnesium or bromine), but I found a PDF with the other pages I posted and replaced the photos with better quality screenshots. I am sorry for the poor quality screen shots. I took the photos for my personal reference when I had the idea to isolate bromine and magnesium from seawater. Since I do not live near the Great Salt Lake that section was not of interest of me. Here is one last table that compares the composition of different saline waters and it includes the Great Salt Lake as well as the PDF for the volume on sodium chloride

[99] H. Aral, B.D. Hill, G.J. Sparrow: "Value Adding to Salts Recovered from Saline Waters" in Disposed Basins in the Murray-Darling Basin - Appendix 2: Production of Salts from Brines and Bitterns, Murray-Darling Basin Comission, Canberra 2004 (ISBN 1921038268)

Attachment: ullmann_sodium_chloride.pdf (942kB)
This file has been downloaded 532 times

[Edited on 2/12/2022 by Plunkett]

SnailsAttack - 15-2-2022 at 19:01

Quote: Originally posted by Plunkett

Here are some pages from a chemical engineering encyclopedia* on seawater processing which you may find interesting.
Edit: *Ulmann's Encyclopedia of industrial Chemistry

awesome, thank you. i've been looking for documentation on separating sea salts by recrystallization for ages!

I really wished I lived near some saltwater lol. Lake Ontario hasn't got nothin in it