TwentekanaalAkzo2

Title: Hengelo, part of the Akzo Nobel Salt Plant
Caption: Hengelo [prov. of Overijssel] Part of the Akzo Nobel Salt Plant at the Twentekanaal south of the town of Hengelo. The salt in Twente was deposited more than 200 million years ago by the evaporation of salt water. This part of the Netherlands was then an inland sea. About 450 meters below the ground under Hengelo and its surroundings is a 50 meter thick layer of rock salt, big enough for many hundreds of years of salt production. The drilling and brine production company produces the rock salt by drilling wells and lowering a pipe into the salt layer. A second, smaller pipe is lowered though this pipe and reaches several meters deeper into the salt layer. Water is pumped down through the space between the two pipes to dissolve the salt. The brine thereby formed is forced up through the inner pipe by the pressure of the water. The brine is transported through pipelines to the salt production works for further processing. Photo by Job Rabbeljee, summer 2005. Trust 770Z Powercam.
Copyright: Job Rabbeljee

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