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Salt from Silt by I G M Massaquoi
This paper (6pp) from Dr. I.G.M. Massaquoi of Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, describes a simple, village level process for extracting salt (sodium chloride) from coastal silt. This has been developed in Sierra Leone but he states that such salt laden silts are common and so if wood fuel is freely available, the process may have advantages over the usual process of solar evaporation in salt ponds. He describes it as a profitable man and wife operation. The first part of the process is to leach out the salt from the silt by repeatedly passing salt water through a cone shaped basket of silt (Fig. 1) to raise its salt concentration from 3 1/2% to 30%.
The second part is to evaporate and crystalize the salt from the concentrated brine. This is done by boiling in enamel pans sitting on top of mud or masonry stoves (Fig. 2) with 2 pot holes and a chimney. He states that about 200 kg. of wood are required to produce 60 kg. of salt - one days work for two people. There are several possibilities for developing a more fuel efficient stove/pan combination such as sitting the pans into the stove and the circulation of hot, dry air over the surface of the brine. Even though the short paper leaves several questions unanswered, it is interesting both as a potential village industry to produce an important commodity and because it concerns a large, local consumer of fuel wood. We hope to have more details from Dr. Massaquoi.
[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 11: Successful Stove Programmes
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Page created:
29 September 2008; Last edited:
29 September 2008; Version: 0 | |||||||||||
Pagename: BP11:SaltFromSilt @HEDON: BWNA | |||||||||||
