Other evaporated salt refining

Other evaporated salt technologies are in use today, some very old, others brand new.

Most table salt is produced using vacuum pan evaporation. The Allberger flake is significantly different from the cubic crystal of table salt produced in vacuum pans. This photo is of the evaporation pan at Cargill Salt's St. Clair, MI plant.

Open pan or grainer pan evaporators have been used for millennia. Less energy-efficient than vacuum pan evaporators, they produce a good quality crystal. Cargill Salt operates its Allberger flake salt technology on this technology. Here's an Allberger pan.

Japan lacks underground salt deposits and its climate is inhospitable to solar salt production. Since 1972, the Japanese salt industry has used an ion exchange system (electrodialysis process), using electricity to concentrate sea water to a saturated brine suitable for conventional vacuum pan evaporation.

In Mexico, Salt Institute member company Exportadora de Sal, S.A. of H.P., has developed a unique process for refining salt. By re-dissolving its already high-quality solar salt and using a patented “salting out” process to precipitate out trace amounts of calcium, magnesium and sulfate, they are able to produce a solar sea salt exceeding 99% purity.