Salt, an abundant mineral of which there are 14,000 known uses. The body contains about 75 grams of salt for a 110 pd (50 kg) human. We literally can not live without it.

Salt is composed mostly of sodium (an alkali) and chloride. The feedstock of the chlor alkali industry just as petroleum is for the petrochemical industry. Mix salt with water and then pass electricity through it, you get compounds like caustic soda, chlorine, and hydrogen. The essential building blocks in everything from food, clean drinking water, to pharmaceuticals.

Now let’s skip the other 13,990 some odd uses for the sake of time, space, and an imprint of the keyboard on your forehead, and get down to something a little more exciting. (more…)