• deutsch
• francais
• spanish
• русский
• polish

RHEWUM GmbH | 42875 Remscheid | Tel. +49 (0) 2191 - 5767 - 0 | info@rhewum.de

• Materials
• Products
• News
• Contact Us

Salt

Table salt or cooking salt is used for food. It consists mainly of sodium chloride. In general chemical substances with ionic compounds are termed salt. Commonly sodium chloride (NaCl) resp. table salt is seen as salt. In the broader sense all compounds consisting of anions and cations like NaCl are termed as salt, e.g. calcium chloride (CaCl) or magnesium chloride (MgCl).

In the extraction process of standard table salt normally 1 to 3% of other salts are remaining in rock salt as well as in sea salt. Untreated sea salt additionally contains up to 5% water. Mostly commercially traded is purified refined salt, also known as evaporated salt. For the improvement of certain characteristics as deliquescence or flowability other substances are added. For flowability these are e.g. calcium carbonate (lime), magnesium carbonate, aluminium oxide or silicates. This is done because untreated salt is hygroscopic and therefore clumps together. Salt with a high flowabilty firstly was developed in 1911 by the US-American salt producer Morton Salt.

Yet the Sumerians and Babylonians used salt for the conservation of food. In German cultural area salt became affordable not before the salt layers of a thickness of hundreds of meters arising from the Zechstein sea in northern Germany were exploited. Toponyms related to salt deposits oftentimes have “salt” resp. the Middle High German term “Hall” as part of their name. Examples are Halle (Saale), Bad Reichenhall, Hallein, Hallstatt, Hall in Tirol, Schwäbisch Hall, Salzburg, Salzgitter, Salzhausen, Hansestadt Salzwedel, Bad Salzuflen, Bad Salzdetfurth, Bad Salzelmen, Bad Salzschlirf, Salzkotten and Schweizerhalle. Also the name of the holms (in German “Halligen”) in the North sea arise from the term “salt”.

Salt is mainly won underground by mining or by dissolving. By selective dissolving and concentrating as well as by evaporation the salt is separated from its impurities in salt refineries. RHEWUM screens crushed or milled rock salt as reliable as finest evaporated salt.

In Germany the production of table salt makes only approx. 3% of the whole salt production. The remaining amount is used as industrial salt or de-icing salt. Starting with the development of Soda production based on the use of cooking salt by Nicolas Leblenc the step to the large-scale industrial production and use of Soda was done. Soda is used as a base material for the production of glass, textiles, detergents and cleaning agents. Therefore the areas of application for industrial salt are baking powder, glass, colourants, detergents as well as aluminium or cellulose in wad or paper.