Mineralization greater than 50 g / l of groundwater is called brine, is a liquid sedimentary deposits, mainly including: distributed in the inland sedimentary basins in the deep ancient brine (such as the Sichuan Basin of the San Diei system Zigong brine), the modern salt lake brine, as well as distributed in the coastal area of the shallow Quaternary Coastal Phase underground brine.
The development and utilization of underground brine resources in the coastal zone is of great value and significance. It has changed along the thousands of years to seawater as raw materials for sea salt production, salt industry for the development of a new way.
Because it is known that the concentration of underground brine is 2 to 6 times higher than seawater, you can save 60% to 80% of the area of the salt field brine, shorten the process 40% to 60%, and improve the disaster-resistant ability, so that the original salt yield has increased exponentially to reach the goal of high-yield and stable production.
The use of underground brine "well beach salt", is considered to be the second technological revolution in the production of sea salt (the first revolution is a change from seawater frying to beach tanning). At present, China's development and utilization of underground brine has been gradually expanded from the Laizhou Bay salt area to Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning salt areas, and has been to the East China, South China coastal provinces and cities to promote.
Han You Song researcher and his group in the coastal region of the distribution of underground brine resources, enrichment conditions and causes of the study has achieved significant results, the first to put forward the "coastal tidal flats brine" theory and "shelf plain freezing effect of brine" hypothesis, and from 1988, the "brine" hypothesis, and from 1988 onwards, the "brine" hypothesis. Since 1988, these theories have been successfully used to guide production and development, and six prospective distribution areas of underground brine in China, including Qingdao, have been predicted and 13 deposits have been identified. Among them, in the 135 square kilometers of Qingdao's coastal area, the prospective reserves of underground brine were found to be about 2.2 billion cubic meters, equivalent to about 10 million tons of sodium chloride. Huangdao salt field after 1993, all the use of underground brine production of raw salt, the output is more than twice as much as before. Shandong Jimo Bridge Salt Farm, Jiaonan Huanghai Salt Farm to use underground brine production of raw salt, production has also doubled.
The development and utilization of underground brine resources has greatly promoted the development of China's sea salt production. This research result won the first prize for scientific and technological progress of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994.