Bromine production in the United States
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Bromine production in the United States of 225,000 tonnes in 2013 made that country the second-largest producer of bromine, after Israel. The US supplied 29 percent of world production. Since 2007, all US bromine has been produced by two companies in southern Arkansas, which extract bromine from brine pumped from the Smackover Formation. At an advertised price of US$3.50 to US$3.90 per kg, the US 2013 US production would have a value of roughly US$800 million.
The two active bromine producers are Albemarle Corporation and Chemtura, whose bromine operations together employ 950 people. Albemarle Corporation, whose corporate headquarters is in Charlotte, North Carolina, operates two main plants at Magnolia, in Columbia County, Arkansas, and some satellite plants in Union County. In 2007, Albemarle had capacity to produce 148,000 tons of bromine per year.
Chemtura, a Philadelphia-based corporation, operates four plants through its subsidiary, Great Lakes Solutions. Three plants are in the vicinity of El Dorado, and all in Union County, Arkansas. In 2007, Chemtura had the capacity to produce 130,000 tonnes of bromine per year.
Since 1969, all US bromine has been produced from subsurface brine. Previously, bromine was also recovered from sea water, either directly or from the bittern produced during solar salt operations.
Appalachian Basin
Bromine-bearing brines are associated with saline deposits. The bromine content of sea water is 60 to 70 parts per million (ppm). As sea water evaporates, a succession of minerals precipitate, concentrating the bromine. Bromide is so soluble that it does not form saline minerals. After halite (rock salt) precipitates, the remaining brine, called bittern, contains about 2,700 ppm bromine. Bromine continues to concentrate as magnesium and potassium minerals precipitate. The brine remaining after potassium mineral precipitation may contain 6,000 ppm bromine.[1]
Underground sources of bromine-rich brines are associated with halite deposits. The process of concentrating bromine by evaporation artificially to produce sea salt replicates the natural process, and produces bromine-rich brine.
The high-bromine brines in the Appalachian Basin are found in Silurian and Devonian rocks, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The principal source of the brine in Ohio and West Virginia was the Pottsville Formation, also called the Big Salt Sand. In Pennsylvania, bromine brine was pumped from the Pocono Sandstone.[2]
Michigan Basin
In 1911, the principal source of bromine brine in the Michigan Basin was reported to be the Marshall Sandstone of Mississippian age, with bromine concentrations of between 1,000 and 3,000 ppm. By the late 1900s, production had shifted to the Filer Sandstone of the Detroit River Group, of Devonian age, with bromine concentrations of about 2,600 ppm.[3]
Smackover Formation, Arkansas
The brine from the Smackover Limestone of Jurassic age carries 5,000 to 6,000 ppm bromine. The brine is believed to have migrated into the Smackover from the underlying Louann Salt, through the intervening Norphlet Formation.
Although Smackover brine was originally produced as a byproduct of oil production, commercial bromine operations have their own high-productivity brine wells.[4]
Searles Lake, California
Searles Lake, California is today a seasonally dry lake within a closed drainage basin, but at various times during the past three million years, when rainfall was more plentiful, Searles Lake was much larger, and was one in a chain of six lakes ultimately draining into ancient Lake Manley, now the bottom of Death Valley. The water level in Searles Lakes fell below its outlet for the last time about 11 thousand years ago, but for some of the time since, received water flowing from Owens Lake and China Lake. The result of thousands of years of evaporation are the sediments below the present lake bed, which include two salt layers, and brine with high concentrations of bromine, along with potassium, sodium and boron.
Brine associated with the Upper Salt and Lower Salt intervals contains 500 to 900 ppm bromine. Concentrations above 800 ppm were used for bromine extraction, most production being from the Upper Salt.[5]
