alkali

After spending July gorging on the larvae of alkali flies, the birds are gradually departing this month to begin their migration to another saline lake about 6,000 miles away — Laguna Mar Chiquita in Argentina.

She remembers the lake being much higher in her youth when she went to the shore with her family, carrying baskets to collect kootzabe, or alkali fly pupae, a traditional food source.

This process combines fats or oils with an alkali to produce soap.

The company has one aquamation machine that uses alkali solution, heat and pressure to break down the organic material into ashes.

The low-carbon seawater then has alkali added to it – to neutralise the acid that was added – and is then pumped back out into a stream that flows into the sea.