Abstract

Historically, salt production at Djègbadji (Benin Republic) started five to six centuries ago, traditionally relying on labor-intensive methods, consisting on leaching salty soils to obtain brine, a core component in the process. However, salt production could be streamlined by evaporating seawater in basin nearby the Atlantic Ocean. This work aims to estimate the height of seawater with a density of 1.025 (or initial brine with a density ranging from 0.4 to 1) required to obtain, after evaporation, a final brine with a density of 1.2, and to evaluate the resulting quantity of salt. During the favorable period (November to March), it would suffice to fill a basin with saltwater to a height varying between 0.61 and 35.38 mm to obtain after evaporation, by the end of the day, a brine density (of 1.2 ) which height varies between 0.521 and 30.22 mm. Solar salt production would then require an additional six days for complete water evaporation, allowing for every six days the production of between 5.26 and 305.83 kg of salt for an area of 50 m², and between 10.52 and 611.65 kg for an area of 100 m². Thus, with an area of 1 hectare (10000 m²), it would be possible to achieve a maximum annual production of 1529.125 tons, more than 1.5 times the current annual salt production in Benin. This production could be optimized by increasing the basin's surface area and applying a material with a high calorific absorption coefficient to the basin's bottom.

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