Massive-Scale Dissolution, Conveyance, and Disposal of Dead Sea Potash Industry Halite Waste.

ABSTRACT

The Dead Sea (DS) potash industry halite waste accumulation rate is estimated at 0.2 m year-1, across 140 km2 of evaporation ponds in Israel and Jordan, totaling ∼28 million m3 year-1. As accommodation in the southern DS basin space is nearly exhausted, it is planned in Israel to dredge newly precipitated salt and convey it in a solid state to the northern DS basin by constructing a 30 km conveyor to the northern DS basin where the salt will be disposed. Concerns regarding the environmental impacts of such massive undertaking led to the examination of alternative solutions. The alternative discussed in the paper, which takes into account the estimated halite waste volumes in Jordan as well, examines the feasibility for dissolution of the dredged halite and its transport in a dissolved state and disposal in the DS by seawater (SW) or desalination reject brine (RB) from the Red Sea─Dead Sea Project (RSDSP), if constructed. Results show that the high halite solubility in SW/RB and rapid dissolution kinetics are sufficiently fast to dispose of the dredged halite with the discussed volumes of the RSDSP. Thermodynamic calculations are presented to show that precipitation dynamics following the mixing of the Na+-Cl--loaded SW/RB with the DS brine could be controlled to avoid outsalting at the mixing point in the DS.