Production and optimization of sea salt quality on the coast of Tomini Bay

Abstract

Tomini Bay is a water area with an area of 59,500 km2. Especially for Gorontalo Province, it has a length of about 436.52 Km. Based on this data, the province of Gorontalo, especially the coast of Tomini Bay, has the potential to be the source of raw material for salt production. Generally, the salt production process goes through various stages of the processes, namely the first evaporation process, the second evaporation process, the concentration process, and the crystallization process. The objective of this research is to obtain pure salt that meets the Standards of SNI. The salt production method used are evaporation and purification with re-crystallization techniques by physical means (using hot water) and chemical methods by the addition of chemicals Ca(OH)2, NaOH, and Na2CO3. The results of this study showed that the obtained salt has NaCl content of 97.04%, Ca 0.55%, and Mg 0.28%. The obtained saltdoes not meet the salt requirements for SNI standards because there is still a large amount of Ca (SNI=0.10) and Mg (SNI=0.06). However, it meets the type of salt group, namely in category 1 with the best quality that meets the requirements for industrial materials and for consumption.