Salt production is of strategic importance for Turkmenistan

Expert Ilyasov emphasized that the country is rich in deposits of mineral salts, and the main ones are chlorides and sulfates.

Salt (sodium chloride) is an important element that ensures the vital functions of humans and the animals. It is a product with a wide range of industrial applications. Its importance for the world economy is invaluable. In an interview to online media CentralAsia.news, doctor of Technical Sciences and expert Allaberdi Ilyasov spoke about the importance of salt production for Turkmenistan.

Strategic importance

Turkmenistan is rich in deposits of mineral salts, among which the main ones are chlorides (including potassium) and sulfates (a group of anhydrite, gypsum, mirabilite and others). They fully provide the domestic market with the relevant products. The main reserves of salts are associated with the Jurassic salt-bearing formation of Eastern Turkmenistan (the largest deposits are Gaurdak, Karlyuk), as well as with the newest deposits of Garabogazgol. This bay is the largest salt pool in the world. Its water area is about 18 thousand square kilometers. Modern production at Garabogazgol is aimed at obtaining sodium sulfate, bischofite, epsomite, sodium chloride, bromine, lithium — more than ten types of industrial products.

According to scientists and practitioners, only part of the gulf’s wealth is used. On the basis of the available resources of hydromineral raw materials, it is possible to organize many more promising and interconnected industrial productions, the production technology of which is well known in world practice. This is the extensive use of bischofite, containing 65 elements of the periodic table. It is estimated that the mineral raw materials of the bay — sodium sulfate, bischofite, epsomite, magnesium and magnesium oxide isolated from brine — are widely used in more than 25 different industries of world production — space technology, aircraft and automobile manufacturing, plant growing, soap making. Therefore, the comprehensive involvement of the inexhaustible wealth of the Gulf in industrial production is of strategic importance for Turkmenistan.

A valuable product of history

Salt has been of great value since ancient times. It was both a currency and an object of cults and rituals. The beginning of salt mining was often accompanied by various festive ceremonies. In the Middle Ages, cities, states and principalities levied huge taxes on merchants for transporting salt through their territory. This was the reason for the founding of some cities, for example, Munich in 1158. The monetary unit in Italy was called «soldo», after salt. 

It is one of the most valuable foods in the history of the Earth. In the 6th century, the Roman historian and adviser to the king of the Ostrogoths, Cassiodorus, remarked: «Salt is necessary for everyone, while many can do without gold». 

Salt was of high value among all peoples of the ancient world and the Middle Ages. In addition to being a contributing factor in the development of civilization, salt was also used in the military practice of salting the earth by various peoples, starting with the Assyrians. In the early years of the Roman Republic, with the growth of Rome, roads were built to make transporting salt to the capital easier.

Salt production

Man has been familiar with the production of table salt since ancient times. Technology has improved, but the principles remain much the same as hundreds of years ago. Salt is mined in a variety of ways. The main ones are four technologies: extraction of sodium chloride in solutions, salt evaporation in the sun (lake and sea), underground mining of rock salt, production of boiled salt by the vacuum method. The highest quality type of salt is vacuum salt, which, however, accounts for a small part of salt production. 

The process is multi-stage, consisting of the extraction of raw materials, cleaning it from mechanical and chemical impurities, enrichment with useful elements, drying and crushing. To obtain a quality product, modern equipment and strict adherence to technology are required. The technology and process of salt production, in turn, depend on the type of deposit and on the characteristics of the product: purity, granule size, presence of additives. 

The specific technologies for the production of salt in different countries of the world vary greatly — from the most primitive salt cookers based on manual labor with an annual production of several tens of tons of product to large fully automated production facilities designed to produce several million tons of salt annually. The original technology of salt production is used in Japan, where there are no large deposits of salt and there are no free land plots for salt evaporation in the sun. In this country, salt for the food industry and, especially, for individual consumption by the population is obtained directly from sea water on the basis of ion-exchange technology.

«Salted» sectors of the economy

In industry, salt is used as a raw material for the production of various substances. Sodium chloride — for the production of sodium hydroxide, chlorine, baking soda, and calcium phosphate — for phosphorus and its derivatives — acids and fertilizers. Sulfides are used as raw materials for the production of metals (lead, zinc, tin and sulfuric acid). Sodium (soda) and potassium (potash) carbonates are raw materials in the production of glass and detergents. Calcium carbonate is used as a raw material in the production of quicklime, as well as in metallurgy in smelting cast iron and steel to remove impurities into the slag.

In agriculture, salt is used to improve soil quality and to increase crop yields. So, calcium carbonate is introduced into the soil to regulate its acidity. Ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, calcium nitrate are used as nitrogen fertilizers. The phosphorus fertilizers are calcium hydrogen phosphate and dihydrogen phosphate, ammonium hydrogen phosphate and dihydrogen phosphate. For potash fertilizers, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, potassium nitrate are practiced. In household plots, ash, which contains up to potassium carbonate (potash), is often used as a potassium fertilizer. Salts of copper, zinc, manganese, iron, cobalt are used for plant nutrition as micronutrient fertilizers. Copper sulfate pentahydrate (copper sulfate) is used as a plant disease control agent.

Facets of «crystallization»

Salt is widely used in the chemical industry for the production of chlorine, caustic and soda ash, products of the petrochemical complex, organic synthesis, glass, alumina and other industries. Sodium chloride is used in ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering and metalworking, anti-icing of roads, in the production of cooling solutions, in medicine, cosmetology, soap making, in the processing of furs and rawhides, the oil industry, and animal husbandry. A significant amount of salt is used for the needs of the thermal power industry, in particular, in the chemical treatment of water for boilers of thermal power plants.

And the multifaceted use of salt is taking place in construction. For example, crushed stone is produced of limestone, which is used in construction and road repair. Dolomite is used for finishing works. Calcium sulfate hemihydrate (burnt gypsum) — a material for construction and repair work. Sodium and potassium silicate (liquid glass) in waterproofing, as well as for strengthening soils. In medicine, salts are widely used for the treatment of various kinds of diseases, as well as as adjuvants. 

Burnt plaster is the main material in the manufacture of fixation dressings for fractures. Sodium chloride is consumed for the preparation of physiological solutions. Potassium permanganate solution is the best disinfectant. Silver nitrate is used as a disinfectant and cauterizing agent. Salts are found in various personal care products.

Soaps contain sodium salts of organic acids such as sodium stearate. Calcium carbonate is used in toothpastes as an abrasive (scraping) component. Aluminum salts such as hydroxychloride are essential in deodorants.

To increase safety in winter against icing of roads and sidewalks, sodium chloride, calcium chloride, calcium acetate are used.

In dry powder fire extinguishers, the basis of the mixture used to fight fires are salts such as ammonium hydrogen phosphate and dihydrogen phosphate, sodium carbonate and bicarbonate. When smelting and soldering metals in jewelry, sodium tetraborate decahydrate is used. Silver nitrate (lapis) is used for galvanic silvering of products. Sodium tetracyanoaurate is used for galvanic gilding of items. Many precious and semi-precious stones are salts. For example, pearls, the main component of which is calcium carbonate, emerald, malachite. 

Today, the chemical industry of Turkmenistan has a strategic role in solving the problems of transferring the national economy to a non-resource path of development, the formation of new industries, an increase in the production of various and competitive import-substituting products to meet domestic needs, and export-oriented products, which is in great demand in foreign markets.

27 12 2021, 11:05
Photo source: CentralAsia.news

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