Overview
ARBOK LIGHT-SALT engineers the salt itself — directly from seawater — to contain 25–30 % less sodium without changing taste, appearance, or function in food. Unlike potassium-substituted (KCl) salts, which are bitter and risky for kidney, heart, and diabetic patients, LIGHT-SALT adds no potassium. It builds on ARBOK vacuum evaporation and ion-separation: compact desalination naturally yields technical salt, and an ion-selection module refines it to lower sodium while preserving chloride and mineral integrity.
Applications
Primary use cases: low-sodium table and food-industry salt; national sodium-reduction programs; local salt sovereignty from any sea.
Industries and users: food manufacturers, public-health authorities, municipalities, desalination operators.
Scale: integrated with 200 m³/day desalination plants; scalable with ARBOK platforms.
Operating Principle
Seawater is processed by low-temperature vacuum evaporation, yielding technical salt as a byproduct; an integrated ion-selection module then fractionally lowers the sodium content of the salt while keeping chloride and minerals intact. No potassium substitution, no bitterness.
Limitations: ion-selection integration maturity; food-grade certification per market.
Architecture and Components
Vacuum evaporation/desalination module; salt crystallization; ion-selection refinement module; food-grade finishing/iodization; control system. Integrated with ARBOK desalination plants.
Advantages
Technical: real low-sodium salt (not a KCl blend); plug-and-play in food industry; multiple output grades.
Economic: water + salt + LIGHT-SALT stacked from one integrated plant.
Health: safe for all populations (no potassium risk); no health-authority warning required.
Strategic: locally produced from any sea — no imports or geopolitics; supports national sodium-reduction strategy.
Integrations
Bolts onto ARBOK desalination/salt plants (SODA, boron, brine recovery); standard food-grade finishing and iodization lines.
Deployment & Operation
Steps: integrate ion-selection module into a desalination plant → commission → food-grade qualification. Continuous, automated, minimal staffing.
TRL
TRL 7 (confirmed by Michael). Integrated LIGHT-SALT ion-selection validated in operational desalination environments across multiple ion compositions. Remaining to 8–9: sustained commercial/national-scale production with food-grade certification.
Market Potential
Excess dietary sodium is a leading public-health risk; KCl substitutes are limited by taste and patient safety. A universal, locally produced low-sodium salt fits national sodium-reduction policies and the food industry directly.
Typical Project Economics
Marginal cost over standard ARBOK desalination salt is the ion-selection step; revenue stacks water + salt + premium LIGHT-SALT. CAPEX modular (add-on to desalination plant); payback via premium salt pricing and integrated water sales. (Detailed economics to be modelled.)
Risk Factors
Food-grade certification per jurisdiction; ion-selection integration maturity; market education vs KCl substitutes; verification of plant-scale validation.
Related Technologies
ARBOK-SODA · ARBOK-Boron Separation (ASB) · Vacuum Osmosis · ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking)