Process Description

A molecule of water takes up to 12 months on the trip from the Dead Sea through APC’s ponds system and back again after shedding its cargo of minerals.

The process commences at the Brine Intake pumping station located on the Lisan peninsula where four intake pumps with a capacity of approximately 18 m3 per second deliver 250 - 300 million tons per year of Dead Sea Brine into the first of a series of salt ponds, which has the highest solar evaporation rate in the system. The Salt Ponds are considered to be the key element in the Potash recovery process, their main function being to perform the initial concentration of Dead Sea Brine which has a density of about 1.235 gm/cc and is ten times as salty as sea water.

Due to the high evaporation rate in these ponds, most of the Sodium Chloride is deposited and the water content of the brine is reduced bringing the density to about 1.300 gm/cc. yearly, (16-18) million tons of NaCl deposited at the Salt ponds.
Part of the deposited Salt at the Salt ponds appeared as salt mushrooms and reefs. These affect negatively on the performance, as they reduce the active evaporation area. These mushrooms and reefs are removed by Mechanical Dredging.

APC has its own dredger fleet consists of five dredgers for removal of salt buildup. This equipment has been supplemented by hiring an international contractor to remove the deposited Salts in order to optimize operation of the salt ponds and keep the solar evaporation system fully operational.

At the end of the salt ponds, the brine is transferred to the Pre - Carnallite Pond, PC -2, by gravity flow. This pond acts as a controller for the brine composition to be at the Carnallite point. The density of the brine is further increased at this stage reaching 1.303 gm/cc in PC -2 and about 2% KCl concentration.

Brine concentration in the Salt Ponds and Pre - Carnallite pond must therefore be continuously monitored in order to achieve satisfactory production of Carnallite. From the Pre - Carnallite ponds brine is pumped into two branches of series Carnallite ponds.  The first branch is started by Carnallite pond (C - 3) and then flows by gravity to the remaining Carnallite ponds (C -2, C -1, C - 5, C - 6, C -7). While the second branch started by C-8 and then flows by gravity to C-9, C-10 and C-11. The outlet of the C-11 flows by gravity to the C-7. Based on the effluent of the refineries and to recover its contents of K+ ion, C - 4 ponds has been constructed with an area of 5 km2. Brine from the final pond (C -7) which contains about 0.3% Potassium Chloride and has an average density of 1.345 gm/cc is then discharged into the flood channel and flows back to the Dead Sea. Carnallite (KCl.MgCl2.6H2O) production capacity from the solar evaporation system is around 12 million tons per year.