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Sea water gel


Salts and minerals from sea water have traditionally been used as ingredients in both food and cosmetics. The compounds can be enriched in different ways: By drying, by membrane concentration, or by electrolysis. The main advantage of electrolysis as a production method is its versatility with respect to reduction or oxidation of specific elements. This crude product seems to have properties as ingredient in cosmetics and skin care products.

Employed at a fish filleting manufacturer at , , was aware of a gel deposit which grew onto electronic equipment placed in seawater [1]. Accidentally it was recognized that this gel when used on wounded hands cured scratches and wounds obtained by use of butcher knives. Such injuries had most often a long healing time due to bacterial infections. The use of the gel inhibited such infections, and the cure time was dramatically lowered. On this basis an industry was developed to produce this gel and to enrich its active compounds. Currently gel is produced at chosen localities at the coast of , Norway.

Sea water contains by weight 1.08 percent sodium and 0.129 percent magnesium. The chloride salts of these elements have during centuries been produced from sea water by drying. Dried sea water gel is a blend of oxides, hydroxides and salts of the main elements from sea water. These compounds are recovered by electric generated deposition. The deposit has a low solubility in sea water. In this way an elemental composition has been obtained that qualitatively differ from that found in sea water in the sense that magnesium is more enriched than sodium, and the total share of chloride salts is low [2]. The explanation seems to be that magnesium is enriched both as a hydroxide and as a chloride salt, whereas sodium only is present as the chloride salt. The overall main chemical reactions for the processing of the gel are:


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