Increasing the Productivity of Salt

through HDPE Geomembrane—

Indonesian Case History in Salt
Evaporation Pond

Andryan Suhendra
Lecturer of Civil Engineering
Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia
e-mail: asuhendra@binus.edu

ABSTRACT
In Indonesia, the application of HDPE geomembrane is generally for waste liners such as industrial
waste, hazardous waste, landfill etc. A new application of HDPE geomembrane in Indonesia is as a
liner for salt evaporation ponds introduced on 2011.
For the initial phase of the trial, as many as 25 percent of the total area of 406 ha salt evaporation
ponds were to be covered using 20 mil HDPE geomembrane.
The trial showed that the area covered by HDPE geomembrane had its productivity increased to 460
percent. After 1 year (2012), the numbers suggest that productivity of the salt evaporation ponds with
HDPE geomembrane was almost double of ones without.
The lifetime of HDPE geomembrane of more than 10 years (HDPE geomembrane can be used
repeatedly) added to the benefit. It can be concluded that HDPE geomembrane application in salt
evaporation ponds provide many benefits and positive impact on productivity increment of salt, so the
officials extended the project in subsequent years.
This paper will present a case history of HDPE geomembrane application in salt evaporation ponds
located at Madura island, East Java Indonesia and will cover the technical aspects of the project i.e.
site condition, technical criteria of HDPE geomembrane, installation process, and productivity of
ponds with and without HDPE geomembrane.
KEYWORDS: HDPE Geomembrane, Salt Evaporation Pond, Productivity

INTRODUCTION
Madura Island is the largest salt producer in Indonesia, located at northeastern coast of Java and
part of East Java Province. Madura Island has a unique characteristic, with longer dry seasons and
limited river and fresh water source, making the Madura Island an area of good quality and largest
producer of salt in Indonesia. Mostly the salt production is carried out by independent farmer since
the 19th century using conventional methods; therefore the productivity of salt is low.
The farmers would drain the sea water to the salt farm/pond through channel by pump or due to
high tide, then the water was left for evaporation process. After 25 – 28 days of evaporation process,
the salt crystals are transferred to the salt table for drying process. The drying process will take 4-10

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days depending on the weather conditions (Prijono, 2013). When using conventional methods, the
farmer could produce and harvest the salt three times a year.
PT Garam is a state-owned salt producing and marketing firm, which has 5700 hectares of land
in the districts of Sumenep, Pamekasan and Sampang on Madura Island, used for salt production.
Since 2012, the government has provided several hectares plot of land for trial to increase salt
production on Madura Island.
After detailed studies, the geomembrane then was chosen to be applied on several ponds (Figure
1) and in year 2012 about 115 hectares of evaporation ponds were be covered by geomembrane, then
the productivity of salt ponds with and without geomembrane was evaluated and discussed as
presented in this paper.

Figure 1: Layout of salt evaporation ponds

The area range of a pond varies from 800 m2 to 2000 m2 with typical cross section as shown in
Figure 2.
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Bamboo Mattress
HDPE Geomembrane

Figure 2: Typical cross section of pond with geomembrane

GEOMEMBRANE MATERIAL
Geomembrane is a very low permeability synthetic liner, usually made from synthetic polymer
i.e. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), or Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). The main criteria of
geomembrane as a liner in salt evaporation ponds are durability, economic value and resistance to
degradation by chemical, biological and Ultra Violet.
There are some accepted publication that Geomembrane application in the exposed environment
such as at salt ponds has a shorter lifespan compared to the buried or covered environment due to
adverse degradation mechanisms such as rich natural presence of oxygen, UV degradation from
photo-oxidation and increase temperature degradation due to thermo-oxidation (Rowe et. al. 2002,
Koerner et. al. 2012, Denis et. al. 2013). Carbon black and antioxidants are the additives which are
generally used to retard and inhibit the UV degradation and temperature degradation of
Geomembranes (Denis et. al. 2013).
HDPE geomembrane that includes by carbon black and antioxidants additives was chosen to be
applied in this project.
The HDPE geomembrane had to fulfill the requirements as shown in Table 1.
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Table 1: Requirement of HDPE Geomembrane properties

No. Properties Test Method Unit Required Value
1 Colour - - Black
2 Thickness ASTM D5199 mm 0.5
3 Density ASTM D1505 gr/cm2 >0.93
4 Tensile Properties ASTM D6693
-Strength at Yields kN/m 8–9
-Strength at Break kN/m 14
-Elongation at Yields % 13
-Elongation at Break % 700
5 Tear Resistance ASTM D1004 N >65
6 Carbon Black Content ASTM D1603 % 2–3

INSTALLATION PROCESS
The total area to be covered by HDPE geomembrane during 1 period of the project in year 2012
was about 900,000 m2. A team of 4 technicians and 10 local labours to enable the rate of
geomembrane installation of about 15,000 m2 per day and the installation of geomembrane was to be
completed within 2 months barring any complications during the installation.
The process of the HDPE geomembrane installation was carried out like a common practice of
geomembrane installation, started by delivering the HDPE geomembrane rolls to the nearest ponds
location using heavy equipment like excavator or bulldozer (see top left picture in figure 3). To unroll
the HDPE geomembrane, a simple tool is used with the assistance of human power as shown in top
right picture in figure 3.
The bottom pictures of figure 3 show the process of laying and seaming of the HDPE
geomembrane panels.
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Figure 3: Installation Process of HDPE Geomembrane

The main constraints during the HDPE geomembrane installation were rains and wind. The works
had to wait until the rain stopped, pump the inundated ponds from rain water and put some sand-bags
on the HDPE geomembrane panels to keep it from blowing out (see figure 4).

a. The HDPE geomembrane panels blow out by wind b. Pumping process

Figure 4: The constraints and its solution during installation process of HDPE
Geomembrane
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EVALUATION OF HDPE GEOMEMBRANE PERFORMANCE

TO SALT PRODUCTIVITY
The evaluation of the HDPE geomembrane performance was carried out by comparing the
productivity of salt evaporation ponds with and without HDPE geomembrane for 3 different sections.
The prediction of salt ponds productivity in case of the whole area covered with HDPE geomembrane
was also carried out to show the potential difference it could make.
Table 2 shows the production of ponds with and without HDPE geomembrane during year 2012
in real condition, and table 3 shows the comparison between no liner and if all ponds were covered by
HDPE geomembrane.

Table 2: Comparison of ponds productivity in real condition

Section Soil Table Geomembrane Table
Area (ha) Productivity (t/yr) Area (ha) Productivity (t/yr)
1 150.00 33.305 62.00 85.220
2 62.93 26.846 27.07 37.864
3 77.70 25.654 26.30 25.241
Total 290.63 85.805 115.37 158.325

Table 3: Comparison of the productivity of all the ponds combined with and without HDPE
geomembrane *)
Section Soil Table Geomembrane Table
Area (ha) Productivity (t/yr) Area (ha) Productivity (t/yr)
1 212.00 47.071 62.00 291.397
2 90.00 38.394 27.07 125.887
3 104.00 34.337 26.30 139.356
Total 406.00 119.802 115.37 556.640
*) The productions are determined by linier interpolation per each section

Note for table 2 and 3:

- Soil table: salt pond without HDPE Geomembrane
- Geomembrane table: salt pond with HDPE Geomembrane

Figure 5 shows that the 25% of the area covered by HDPE geomembrane had their production
increased becoming almost double that of 75% of the area without HDPE geomembrane.
By interpolation, we can see that if the whole area covered by HDPE geomembrane, the salt
ponds productivity will increase to about 460 percent.
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Figure 5: Productivity of salt ponds

The main reasons of this increase in production (the advantages of ponds with HDPE
geomembrane) are:
1. The evaporation process are shorter, from 25 days of conventional system to 14 days with
HDPE geomembrane.
2. The turnaround time is improved.
3. The harvest and the quality of salt is improved (contamination by subsoil can be avoided)
4. The long lifetime of HDPE geomembrane will reduce the preparation works.

CONCLUSION REMARKS
The application of HDPE Geomembrane on salt pond would increase the salt production in
multiple compare to salt pond without HDPE geomembrane, therefore the application of HDPE
geomembrane in salt ponds is expanded in subsequent years.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research is supported by PT Tetrasa Geosinindo – Indonesia as a supplier and installer of
HDPE Geomembrane and PT Garam – Indonesia as owner of the project.

REFERENCES
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UV Exposed Ge-omembranes: Part I - Using a Correlation Factor. GRI Report #42,
Geosynthetic Institute, Folsom, PA, U.S.A
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© 2016 ejge

Editor’s note.
This paper may be referred to, in other articles, as:
Andryan Suhendra: “Increasing the Productivity of Salt through HDPE
Geomembrane—Indonesian Case History in Salt Evaporation Pond”
Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 2016 (21.11), pp 4273-
4280. Available at ejge.com.