20-May-2014 16:25 IST
Special feature on Regional Sidelines --M.V.S. Prasad*
Common
salt touches the lives of almost everyone. Indian salt industry has
made rapid strides during last six decades. From an import dependent
nation at the time of Independence, today it ranks third amongst 120
salt producing countries, with an average annual production of about 24
million tonnes. The Indian Salt Industry after meeting country's
domestic requirements of 18 million tonnes, exports about five million
tons of salt to 20 countries.
Out of the total of salt produced
in the country annually, 70% salt is produced from sea brine and 28%
salt comes from subsoil brines and the remaining 2% is produced from
lake brines/salt rocks. Mandi in Himachal Pradesh is the only source of
rock salt in India. In India, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan
contribute to about 96% of the country's salt production. Gujarat
contributes 75% to the total production, followed by Tamil Nadu (11%)
and Rajasthan (10%). Other states such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Orissa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Diu & Daman
also contribute to a small extent. About 62% of the total production is
from large salt producers, 28% is contributed by small scale producers
and rest by medium scale producers. Most of the salt is produced by
private sector only. The Indian salt industry uses labour intensive
technology in contrast to high level of mechanization in salt industry
of nations like Australia, Canada, France, USA etc. India exports
surplus production of salt to the tune of about 35 lakh tonnes on an
average. Major countries importing salt from India are Japan,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Malaysia, U.A.E.,
Vietnam, Qatar etc.
Nearly 30% of total salt produced
goes for human and animal consumption and thus can be a potential
carrier of essential micronutrients for combating various diseases
normally occurring from deficiency of such nutrients in human body. Salt
is also required as a basic feedstock in many of the chemical
industries. Worldwide about 60% of the salt produced is used in chemical
industry, mostly for producing chlorine, caustic soda and soda-ash
which are further utilized in the processes like, organic synthesis,
polymer and petrochemicals and petroleum refining etc. and is also
required in applications such as de-icing, water treatment or coolants
etc.
The salt content in the oceans is 'virtually
inexhaustible.' Besides this there are substantial deposits of salt in
major salt producing countries. There are mainly three ways of producing
salt (a) direct mining of rock salt, (b) forced evaporation of brine,
and (c) solar evaporation of brine. The most common and energy efficient
method is progressive evaporation and concentration of sea, subsoil or
lake brines in various condensing and crystallizing pans utilizing solar
energy.
In general, purer the salt the more valuable
it is. Moisture in salt, mainly due to the presence of excess
impurities of magnesium salts, is also detrimental as it can lead to the
caking up of salt besides being an unwanted baggage during
transportation of salt. For example, if 10 million tonnes of salt has to
be transported from the fields by road, a 4% moisture level in salt
would amount to ca. 40,000 unnecessary trips! A dry salt thus helps
reduce the carbon footprint.
Over the years a series
of inventions have taken place in the area of solar salt. CSIR-Central
Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute, a premier salt research
institute has made a commendable contribution in the development of
novel cost effective technologies of high purity solar salt production.
The Indian salt industry in general lacks adoption of novel
methods of solar salt production leading to inferior quality of
harvested salt than countries such as Australia and Mexico. Improving
the quality of such impure salt requires mechanical washing and other
chemical treatments. CSIR-Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research
Institute, along with various State Governments and Salt Department, the
Government is continuously pursuing the programmme of improving the
quality of solar salt in a cluster development fashion as well as in the
form of establishment of model salt farms which serve as demonstration
units among the salt producers.
Mechanization/modernization of solar salt works and use of saline
wastes of various industries during solar salt production will also lead
to enhancement in salt productivity. The latter will help not only in
improving yield but also in improving the quality of slat and mitigation
of environmental hazards generally occurred from discharge of effluent
in sea or other at other places. Heavy losses in salt production are
incurred as a consequence of unfavourable climatic conditions like heavy
rainfall etc. Such issues can be addressed partially by mechanization
and automation of solar salts. The mechanization of salt works will not
only help in overcoming the problems of shortage of desired manpower
engaged in salt production activities but will also help in improving
the quality and yield of solar salt.
Indian salt industry is
targeting production of 40 million tons salt by 2020 to meet its
domestic requirement of 25 million tons an export about 10 million salt.
It can be achieved by effective utilization of the available 6.1 lakh
acre land and increasing productivity using modern technology. The slat
industry is to be mechanized, merger of the salt works to increase the
size of operation and use of solar plant in place of traditional
electric / diesel power is to be encouraged. (PIB)
*Director, PIB, Chennai
PIB (Feature)***
SS-194/SF-194/20.05.2014
RTS/ASB
New Delhi:29th may 2014: (PIB):
