Under reduced air pressure, the boiling
point of water can be brought down to temperatures
well below 100. Attempts to conserve salt-boiling
fuel and speed production by utilising this intriguing
property of water resulted in yet a further breakthrough
in salt technology: the modern vacuum-evaporation
process.
By the early twentieth century, it was in use throughout
Europe and the New World.
In 1927, Japan's first fully equipped vacuum-evaporation
salt factory opened its doors, and the new process
began its steady advance towards the general acceptance
which it enjoys in the Japanese salt industry at
present.
Scheme of vacuum-evaporation process in operation
Vacuum-evaporation salt plant. (Naikai Salt
Industries, 1998).
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