Salt, or sodium chloride, occurs naturally all over the Earth, and it has even been found in meteors and on Mars.

The Earth’s ocean water is 2.7 percent salt, and huge underground deposits of solid salt are located in many locations around the world. There is so much salt found underground and in saline waters that the supply is almost inexhaustible. In fact, geologists estimate that salt from the United States alone could provide all the salt the world needs for the next 100,000 years.

Safely getting the salt out of the earth and cost-effectively converting it into useful products is the challenge.