The compound formed by the sodium ion (Na+) and chloride ion (Cl–) is commonly known as salt. Salt has the chemical formula NaCl and it is a fundamental substance found in nature as mineral (halite) and dissolved in seawater. Beyond its importance in the creation of life itself on the planet, salt is the first substance after water that attracted humans’ attention, during their life’s evolutionary journey from nomadism to organized society.
We can safely deduce that when humans began searching for salt, they found it in places such as coastal lagoons or rock cavities where seawater is naturally trapped and its salt content crystallizes, as it evaporates in the sun, by the action of solar and wind energy. Eventually, humans, must have copied nature and begun producing salt at a rate that met their growing social needs, exceeding nature’s production rates.
Thus, the solar evaporation of seawater in single-ponds is the first method ever used by humans to produce sea salt. We define this method, as the first stage of the sea salt production process evolution. The constant human need to increase efficiency and improve the quality of final products, eventually led to the multi-pond production scheme of modern Solar Saltworks, which ultimately shaped them into integrated coastal saline ecosystems!
Initially, salt was used to meet people’s nutritional needs. However, when its vital property of preserving food was discovered, salt became one of the most important commodities. For many centuries its commercial value was comparable to that of oil in our time.
The industrial revolution dethroned salt as the most valuable commodity and replaced it with oil, which has since emerged as the primary commodity for new forms of industry and energy. However, the extensive use of sodium chloride in road deicing and in particular, its use as a raw material in the chemical industry has dramatically increased its consumption. Therefore, although salt use as a food preservative subsequently began to decline, people’s needs for salt did not follow the same trend. On the contrary, global annual consumption currently exceeds 200 million tons.
One third of this is coming from solar saltworks. About 20% of the international salt production is destined for human consumption, whereas 55% is used in the chemical industry and 15% is spread on roads to thaw ice or snow in winter.