Uganda is well endowed with economic quantities of mineral salts present in the interstitial brines and evaporite deposits of Lake Katwe, a closed (endorheic) saline lake located in the western branch of the great East African rift valley. Currently, rudimentally and artisanal methods continue to be used for salt extraction from the lake raw materials. These have proved to be risky and unsustainable to the salt miners and the environment and they have a low productivity and poor product quality. This work involves the investigation of the salt raw materials that naturally occur in the brines and evaporites of Lake Katwe. The purpose is to propose strategies for the extraction of improved salt products for the domestic and commercial industry in Uganda. The literature concerning the occurrence of salt and the most common available technologies for salt extraction was documented. Also, field investigations were undertaken to characterize the salt lake deposits and to assess the salt processing methods and practices. The mineral salt raw materials (brines and evaporites) were characterized to assess their quality in terms of the physical, chemical, mineralogical, and morphological composition through field and laboratory analyses. An evaluation of the potential of future sustainable salt extraction from the lake deposits was done through field, experimental, and modeling methods. Moreover, the mineral solubilities in the lake brine systems and dissolution kinetics aspects were investigated. The results reveal that the salt lake raw materials contain substantial amounts of salt, which can be commercialized to enable an optimum production. The brines are highly alkaline and rich in Na+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, CO32-, and HCO3-. Moreover, they contain trace amounts of Mg2+, Ca2+, Br-, and F-. The lake is hydro-chemically of a carbonate type with the brines showing an intermediate transition between Na-Cl and Na-HCO3 water types. Also, the evaporation-crystallization is the main mechanism controlling the lake brine chemistry. These evaporites are composed of halite mixed with other salts such as hanksite, burkeite, trona etc, but with a composition that varies considerably within the same grades. The laboratory isothermal extraction experiments indicate that various types of economic salts such as thenardite, anhydrite, mirabilite, burkeite, hanksite, gypsum, trona, halite, nahcolite, soda ash, and thermonatrite exist in the brine of Lake Katwe. In addition, the salts were found to crystallize in the following the sequence: sulfates, chlorides, and carbonates. A combination of results from the Pitzer’s ion-interaction model in PHREEQC and experimental data provided a valuable insight into the thermodynamic conditions of the brine and the sequence of salt precipitation during an isothermal evaporation. A good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results of the mineral solubilities in the lake brine systems was observed with an average deviation ranging between 8-28%. The understanding of the mineral solubility and sequence of salt precipitation from the brine helps to control its evolution during concentration. Hence, it will lead to an improved operating design scheme of the current extraction processes. The dissolution rate of the salt raw materials was found to increase with an increased temperature, agitation speed and to decrease with an increased particle size and solid-to-liquid ratio. Moreover, the Avrami model provided the best agreement with the obtained experimental data (R2 = 0.9127-0.9731). In addition, the dissolution process was found to be controlled by a diffusion mechanism, with an activation energy of 33.3 kJ/mol. Under natural field conditions, the evaporative-crystallization process at Lake Katwe is influenced by in-situ weather conditions. Especially, the depth of the brine layer in the salt pans and the temperature play a significant role on the brine evaporation rates. With the optimal use of solar energy, it was established that the brine evaporation flux can be speeded up in the salt pans, which could increase the production rates. Moreover, recrystallization can be a viable technique to improve the salt product purity. Overall, it is believed that the current work provides useful information on how to exploit the mineral salts from the salt lake resources in the future. / <p>QC 20151217</p>

In thisproject, solubility of butyl paraben in 7 puresolvents and 5 ethanol aqueous solvents has been determined at from 1 ℃to 50 ℃. Thermodynamic properties of butyl paraben have been measured by DifferentialScanning Calorimetey. Relationship between molar solubility of butyl paraben in6 pure solvents and thermodynamic properties has been analyzed. Thisrelationship suggests a method of estimating activity of solute at equilibrium fromcombining solubility data with DSC measurements. Then, activity coefficient accordingto the solubility at different temperatures can be estimated. Duringthe solubility measurements in ethanol aqueous solvents, it is found that whenbutyl paraben is added into aqueous solutions with certain proportion ethanol,solutions separates into two immiscible liquid layers in equilibrium. Water andethanol are primary in top layer, while the butyl paraben is primary in bottomlayer, but the solution turns to cloudy when two layers of solution are mixed. Theaim of this work was to present the phase behaviour of liquid-liquid-phaseseparation for (butyl paraben + water + ethanol) ternary system from 1 ℃ to 50 ℃at atmospheric pressure. Thearea of liquid-liquid-phase separation region in the ternary phase diagram increaseswith the increasing temperature from 10 ℃to 50 ℃. In thisstudy, more than several hundreds of nucleation experiments of butyl paraben havebeen investigated in ethyl acetate, propanol, acetone and 90% ethanol aqueoussolution. Induction time of butyl paraben has been determined at 3 differentsupersaturation levels in these solvents, respectively. Free energy ofnucleation, solid-liquid interfacial energy, and nuclei critical radius havebeen determined according to the classical nucleation theory. Statistical analysis ofinduction time reveals that the nucleation is a stochastic process with widevariation even at the same experiment condition. Butyl paraben nucleates most difficultlyin 90 % ethanol than in other 3 solvents, and most easily in acetone. The interfacialenergy of butyl paraben in these solvents tends to increasing with decreasemole fraction solubility in these solvents. Coolingcrystallizations with different proportions of butyl paraben, water and ethanolhave been observed by Focused Beam Reflectance Method, Parallel VirtualMachine, and On-line Infrared. The FBRM, IR curves and the PVM photos show someof the solutions appeared liquid-liquid phase separation during coolingcrystallization process. The results suggest that if solutions went throughliquid-liquid phase separation region during the cooling crystallizationprocess the distribution of crystals crystal was poor. Droplets from solutions withsame proportion butyl paraben but different proportions of water and ethanolhave been observed under microscope. Induction time of the droplets has been determinedunder the room temperature. Droplets from top layer or bottom layer of solutionwith liquid-liquid phase separation on small glass or plastic plates were alsoobserved under microscope. The microscope photos show that the opposite flows ofcloudy solution on the glass and the plastic plate before nucleation. The resultsof the cooling and evaporation crystallization experiments both revealed thatnucleation would be prevented by the liquid-liquid phase separation. / QC 20110630