Edinburgh Napier University

  Blackthorn Salt is a specialist food grade sea salt produced from Scottish sea water utilising an historic production process which is both sustainable and environmentally responsible. In-keeping with the company’s ethos of sustainable production, which utilises air evaporation through the country’s only graduated thorn tower to concentrate the brine, the company are seeking to further decarbonise the process by investigating the possibility of utilising renewable solar thermal technologies. As the tower relies on natural environmental processes and prevailing conditions in the early stage of salt production the relationship between seawater temperature and ambient environmental conditions influences the rate of production. A marginal gain in temperature of the brine entering the tower will increase evaporation rates and reduce production times. The balance between brine temperature, flow rate, and environmental conditions needs to be established and will be used to investigate the opportunity to apply solar thermal technologies for enthalpy improvements suitable for application in northern climates