Facts You Didn’t Know About Rock Salt

Rock salt is the purest form of salt; it is totally unprocessed, unrefined and raw. There are different kinds of rock salts as there are different kinds of salts, and they can vary in color from white to pink. Rock salts are highly crystallized salt, devoid of chemical and environmental pollutants or contaminants. It is also a lot more granular with large chunky pieces unlike regular table salt, even though both are sodium chloride.

Gritting Salt

Rock salt’s popular domestic application comes around during snow fall, when residents pull out that big old bag of rock salt you hadn’t seen all year. Rock salts are used as ice melter salts that you can throw on paved surfaces that have been cleared of ice, to prevent ice to start forming on it. You can even use it to manage snow because it can prevent snow from settling. Also, laying down a layer of salt isn’t required either; these salts are sufficient in small quantities to weaken the ice enough to be cleared out easily.

But, How?

These gritting salts achieve this due to a simple scientific principle. Impurities dissolved in a substance, will reduce its specific melting point, so it melts at a lower temperature than its pure form.  Dissolved impurities also increase the boiling point which means they evaporate at a higher temperature as compared to their pure form. The difference in melting temperatures of a particular substance is also a good test of its purity. Because salts are highly soluble in water, snow and ice melt easy and brittle down when gritting salts are added to them.

Some Benefits of Rock Salt:

·         Ice cream: Everybody likes ice cream, but most may not know that rock salts were and can be used in making ice creams. The addition of rock salt is followed with some melted water after which the dissolved salt will decrease its freezing point. So, when the ice melts, it absorbs the heat from the surrounding water, but the water will still not freeze. This is largely responsible for the melting ice cream to still feel shockingly cold in every bite.

·         Gardening and farming: Sodium chloride is a common natural chemical compound and it may surprise you to know but appropriately small quantities of rock salt can also serve as environment friendly yet effective weed killers. A solution of rock salt and water can do wonders for your weed infested garden or farm.

·         Other Industrial uses: The industrial uses of rock salt are a world on its own with extensive applications, ranging from textile to tanning industries, which use brine solutions of rock salt to soften and heal the tissues of their standardized batch. The food industry is a big consumer of rock salts. Apart from ice creams, they are also used as dressing, baking goods, toppings, seasonings, cereal, meat, cheese and even in snacks.

The paper and pulp industry needs rock salt for bleaching of soda as an environment friendly alternative for chlorine. The oil giants in the Fortune 500 also use rock salt by the bulk on mud during drilling of land, in order to prevent fermentation of the mud consequently, facilitating the drilling process.

Whether it is for domestic or commercial use, Rock Salt USA provides the best quality rock salt in USA at reasonable prices. Visit their website for more information.