• CSIR - Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute
  • G20
Salt and Marine Chemicals

Title of Process/ Know-how/ Product/Design/Equipment

Preparation of low sodium salt of botanic origin – Saloni K – with backward integration of cultivation of Salicornia brachiata and Kappaphycus alvarezii

  • IPR
    IPR Status & Details:
  • US 7208189, IN 245319, AU 2004318169, BR PI0418592(A), CA 2562109, CN 100515945(C), EP 1735239(A1), IL 178410, JP 4955538, MX 266374, WO 2005097681(A1)
Application/Uses/Problem being addressed

Low sodium salt, Saloni K, is a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride and is useful for those persons who have been advised to eat less common salt because of medical problems like hypertension.

Cultivation technology helps in generating large amount of biomass of Salicornia, which helps in coastal farmers/fishermen community as livelihood option besides contributing to an extent on GHGs emission.

Kappaphycus alvarezii is cultivated on bamboo raft in sea it helps the fishermen community for livelihood option besides source of potassium chloride.

Salient Technical Features including Competing Features/ Impact

Salient features for preparation of low sodium nutrient rich salts (Saloni K), from high salt accumulating and edible oil-bearing salt tolerant plant, Salicornia brachiata (as a source of NaCl) and a red alga, Kappaphycus alvarezii, a carrageenophyte, (as a source of KCl) are:

  • Simple, efficient, reproducible and scalable
  • Sufficient quantities of micronutrients including K in the salt
  • Fine white crystalline and free flowing refined herbal salt
  • Offers additional opportunity in making oil
  • Optimized cultivation protocol that involves both agronomy and treatment for high yield of biomass per unit area scale
    • TRL Level & Scale of Development:
    TRL 9

    TRL-9 (salt) and TRL-6 (Salicornia cultivation) TRL-9 (Kappaphycus alvarezii cultivation)

    Business scope & opportunity (in terms of scale, cost, market etc.):

    Health consciousness among the people is on increasing trend, augmented by pandemic, and such healthy salt would be preferred; further, in food processing industry that are branded for use of excess salt in the products like pickles, papads etc. use of healthy salt create a new business market.

    Environmental Considerations:

    Environmentally friendly process

    Status of Licensing:
    Ready for licensing
  • Salt technology is transferred- N M S Pharma, Bhavnagar
  • Kappaphycus cultivation technology is licensed to few industries. Salicornia cultivation technology is ready for licensing
    • Status of Commercialization:
    Commercialized

    N M S Pharma, Bhavnagar is commercially producing the salt and selling in both domestic/international market for last few years although in very small scale (couple of tons)

    Major Raw Materials Needed

    Dried plant material (dry biomass); Land near to coastal belt is ideal for Salicornia cultivation. Kappaphycus alvarezii is cultivated in the sea.

    Major Plant Equipment and Machinery Required

    Reactor, filter, evaporator, dryers etc. General agriculture equipment and machinery are required. Bamboo raft is needed for kappaphycus cultivation.

    Techno-Economics

    For Salicornia, one-hectare saline land can produce approximately 41 ton fresh biomass, 11 ton dry biomass, 3.8 ton ash content. From the one hectare land, approximately 1.9 ton salt can be prepared. Kappaphycus alvarezii is cultivated on bamboo raft. One hectare cultivation of K. alvarezii on bamboo raft can produce approximately 780 ton fresh biomass, 78 ton dry biomass and 19.50 ton salt.

    Technology Package

    Available on specific request.