Fleur de Sel Composition and Production: Analysis and Numerical Simulation in an Artisanal Saltern

Fleur de sel: How Does a Pinch of Suitable Choice Practices Value This Sustainable Natural Resource?

“…Although there are several places in mainland Portugal where traditional salt and fleur de sel are produced (for example, in the Center region, namely in the municipalities of Aveiro and Figueira da Foz) [40,41], it is in the South region that salt and fleur de sel are produced in greater amounts. Generally, the weather is more favorable for traditional salt and salt flower production in the continental southernmost region, particularly in the Leeward Algarve (i.e., more annual sunshine hours, longer hot season, low precipitation and air humidity) [42].…”

“…Despite being still quite unknown, it is highly expected that flower of salt could contribute to a more reasonable daily intake of sodium, because in flower of salt, in comparison to coarse salt, potassium and magnesium are found at higher rates in detriment to sodium chloride [42,47].…”

Capillary Forces Lead to Pendant Crystals at the Liquid–Air Interface of Evaporating Salt Solutions

“…Notably, these occurrences have been reported in coastal areas of Brittany (France) and the Algarve region of Portugal. 15,16 In this study, we investigate the floating behavior of growing salt crystals of Halite (NaCl) that form at the free surface of saturated salt solution during evaporation similarly to the study of Davies et al (2021) 17 who studied the interactions between a solid cube under gravity and a horizontal soap film. NaCl crystals generally can grow by three morphologies dictated by its FCC lattice and denoted with Miller planes as cube {100}; octahedron {111}; and rhomb-dodecahedron {110} with a strong tendency to form cubic crystals {100}.…”

Mining Minerals and Critical Raw Materials from Bittern: Understanding Metal Ions Fate in Saltwork Ponds

“…Table salt production in saltworks is an ancient industrial practice representing an effective example of integration of human activities and wildlife protection often resulting in protected areas in the framework of environmental protection initiatives such as Natura 2000 (e.g. in (Cipollina and Micale, 2016;Coelho et al, 2014;Glavaš et al, 2018;Sainz-López et al, 2019)). About one-third of the global table-salt production is manufactured in solar saltworks (Davis, 2013), where natural evaporation of seawater using the renewable energy (e.g.…”

“…Other authors have already characterized saltworks evaporitic environment, mainly with the scope of predicting table salt production also in combination with desalination (Cipollina et al, 2012;Sainz-López et al, 2019). However, a complete description of mineral phases extraction was beyond the scope of these studies.…”