Chapter 152: Finding the Bottom
Chapter 152: Finding the Bottom (Medium Cup)
Jiang Miao was not too worried about what happened in the headquarters. After all, Hailufeng Company was no longer in its start-up phase as it was a year ago.
With all the systems already in place and his brother-in-law, sister, Shuya and others around, he doesn't have to worry about any major problems.
The third thing is that the group of people who tried to steal the secrets of Hailufeng Company was an Annan group that ran over from the border of Guangxi Province.
Judging from the details sent by Jiang Haibo, this group of guys used underground channels to come to Guangxi Province to cut sugarcane, and then ran from Guangxi Province to Shanmei via township roads.
Because of this incident, the local Shanmei has reported it to the higher authorities. It is estimated that in the next period of time, the Annan people who want to come to the south of Guangxi Province to cut sugarcane will be in big trouble.
Jiang Miao also took the time to investigate the motivated companies and forces in Annan through the Internet. In less than two hours, he found these guys.
Mainly, in the investigation report, there was a satellite phone carried by those guys. Jiang Miao used the satellite phone number to reversely locate the other party.
It's easy if you have a location.
"South Vietnam Group?" His eyes were full of coldness: "You don't know whether to live or die."
Then Jiang Miao followed the network cable and opened the internal network of the Nanyue Group’s factory.
Seeing that the opponent's fish meal factories had been semi-shut down, he skipped over those fish meal factories and targeted the opponent's factories that were currently in production.
For example, the production line of Basa fish fillets.
He used the operator's mobile phone to secretly increase the electronic scale in the additive mixing room to 2 times, but the surface display still showed the original number.
In the process of processing fish fillets, three types of additives are generally used, namely water retaining agents, antioxidants and preservatives.
The main antioxidant is vitamin C, and the preservative is potassium sorbate. There will be no major problems if these two things are used in excess.
However, water-retaining agents, generally sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, etc., can be used in appropriate amounts to maintain the moisture and taste of the fish fillets, preventing them from losing water and becoming dry and woody during storage and cooking.
If excessive phosphate is added, the phosphorus content in the fish fillets will be too high, affecting the body's absorption of calcium, leading to calcium-phosphorus metabolism disorders, and increasing the risk of diseases such as osteoporosis and fractures.
Of course, twice is actually not high, and it’s okay to eat it once or twice occasionally.
Moreover, Jiang Miao had no intention of letting these products flow into the market. As long as the problematic fish fillets of the South Vietnam Group were produced and began to be exported, he would report them to the Seres and America Customs through the Internet.
Because the main export markets for Nanyue Group's fish fillet products are these two places.
But that alone is not enough.
Jiang Miao followed the same method and entered the Nanyue Group's factory with an annual output of 80 tons of feed. He unexpectedly discovered that the factory's equipment automation level was quite good, and there were even several advanced batching machines that could spray a certain amount of trace elements and trace components when mixing the feed raw materials.
The parameters of this device are set through a computer.
He kindly researched the formula for the other party, which was specifically for their main products: Basa fish feed, white shrimp feed, and tilapia feed.
After much deliberation, Jiang Miao chose white shrimp, mainly because this aquatic product has a relatively high economic value, and compared with the durable Basa fish and tilapia, white shrimp are too easy to die.
In addition, most of the Basa fish feed produced by the South Vietnam Group is digested internally, while the white shrimp feed is mainly exported to local farmers. When the farmers suffer large-scale production failures after using their "feed", they will definitely cause trouble for the South Vietnam Group.
He simply adjusted the injection parameters of a few trace elements so that the new formula of feed could cause the oxygen in the white shrimp's body to be unable to combine with hemoglobin, thereby causing death from deprivation of oxygen.
Get all of this done.
Before they knew it, it was March 3th, and three days had passed since Jiang Miao arrived in Zhelimu City.
His inspection of the branch was almost finished, and he also adjusted the branch's management team, transferring some of the management who might have problems back to the headquarters, or directly dismissing them.
However, his business at the Mo Nan branch has not yet been completely concluded.
This time, Jiang Miao did not let Lu Weibin and others accompany him. Instead, he took Li Zixuan, Ke Yong and a dozen other people, driving four pickup trucks of the branch company, and first "traveled around the mountains and rivers" in Jiayuan County.
In fact, it was Jiang Miao who was looking for mineral veins.
Hailufeng Company actually has the relevant procedures and qualifications for mining, which are legal procedures obtained through the relationship with the Feed Association.
However, Jiang Miao did not plan to mine the relevant minerals immediately, nor did he plan to let Hailufeng Company itself to mine, but to set up a subsidiary.
The reason for engaging in mining business is mainly for future considerations.
As the international situation has become increasingly severe in recent years, Jiang Miao must prepare for a rainy day.
Although agriculture and mining seem to have no connection, in fact, the two are closely related. For example, many of the three major fertilizer raw materials, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as a large number of trace element fertilizer raw materials, need to be produced through mining.
Nitrogen fertilizer can be synthesized from coal or natural gas using air.
However, potash fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer require mining of minerals, especially phosphate fertilizer. China currently mines hundreds of millions of tons of phosphate rock each year, producing about 40% of the world's phosphate fertilizer. However, the domestic phosphate reserves are only more than billion tons, and many of them are low-grade veins, and the refining cost is too high.
But we can’t not produce.
In addition, there are copper ore, manganese ore, cobalt ore, chromium ore and platinum group, which are all very scarce mineral resources in the country.
The most dangerous of these is phosphate rock.
The main reason is that after phosphate rock is made into fertilizer, it is easily dissolved by water and thus carried into rivers, lakes, and finally flows into the sea. This process is almost irreversible.
Of course, if we ignore the cost and collect all the discharged agricultural water and domestic sewage, we can indeed extract the phosphorus from them again.
But the problem is that the cost of doing so is hundreds of times that of producing phosphorus from phosphate rock, which will increase the price of phosphate fertilizer by hundreds of times.
If the price of phosphate fertilizer increases by hundreds of times, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Taking wheat as an example, one acre requires about 4 kilograms of phosphate fertilizer, which is about 0.9 yuan per kilogram, that is, the cost of phosphate fertilizer per acre is 3.6 yuan. If the price of phosphate fertilizer increases 50 times, the cost of phosphate fertilizer per acre of wheat will become 360 yuan.
You should know that the average domestic wheat yield per mu is only about 450 kilograms, and the average cost per kilogram of wheat will increase by 0.8 yuan.
国内小麦收购从23年的2.34元每公斤，到24年的2.36元每公斤，再到去年的2.38元每公斤，每年才提价0.02元。
If the purchase price of wheat suddenly increases by 0.8 yuan, the prices of other daily necessities will also soar.
The three main fertilizers are essential supplements in the process of plant growth. If there is no phosphorus fertilizer, the phosphorus element in the soil alone is not enough, which will lead to a decrease in the yield of grain, vegetables and fruits, and a decrease in cold resistance and disease resistance.
Some people may think that Jiang Miao is worrying too much.
The country's phosphate reserves can last for at least 30 years. By that time, perhaps the technology to extract phosphorus from natural water bodies will have been mastered, allowing for cheap production.
However, from a practical point of view, the production cost of extracting phosphorus from seawater can never be lower than the cost of refining phosphate rock. The answer lies in the content.
The average phosphorus content (calculated as phosphorus pentoxide) of Morocco's high-grade phosphate ore is between 33% and 34%, while the domestic average content is around 16%.
The phosphorus content in seawater is 0.07 mg per liter.
The content of the two is very different. Unless controlled nuclear fusion can reduce the electricity price to 0.01 yuan per kilowatt-hour, it is better to forget about extracting phosphorus from seawater!
Even if there is still the snowy plateau as the last mineral reserve in the country, the cost of mining and refining more than 3 billion tons of phosphate will become increasingly high.
Once America finds that food weapons are ineffective, you will see if they will take action to disrupt mineral mining in other parts of the country.
Moreover, if the country wants to achieve complete self-sufficiency in grain, oil, feed and sugar, the production capacity of fertilizers cannot be reduced.
Therefore, it is necessary to find high-grade phosphate ore in the country or develop efficient phosphorus refining technology.
Both of these directions are what Jiang Miao can do.
He didn't have much hope for high-grade, easy-to-mine phosphate ore. After all, the depth of underground mining exploration in many parts of the country has reached 400 to 500 meters. Even if there are fish that slip through the net, it is just a matter of luck. He focused on ultra-low-grade garbage veins.
In fact, Jiang Miao has already investigated the phosphate mines in Zhelimu City. The main type of phosphate mines here is igneous rock apatite. The reserves of this type of phosphate mines account for 7% of the total domestic reserves and are mostly distributed in the northern region.
Generally speaking, this type of phosphate ore has a low grade, usually less than 10%, and as low as 2% to 3%, and has no industrial mining value.
In addition, other minerals also contain phosphorus, but the content is generally very low.
For example, the magnetite in front of us, which is 50 to 80 meters deep below the desert, has an average phosphorus content of about 0.63%. The total amount of magnetite ore contained in this magnetite mine is only about 11 tons. Only if all of it is mined can 693 tons of phosphorus pentoxide be extracted.
This kind of small iron ore has no mining value at all.
That night, Jiang Miao and his group rested in the city of Zhelimu.
The next day, just after daybreak, the convoy headed north along Highway 304 to Puren County in the north.
When passing by the Hairihan Forest Farm, Jiang Miao stopped. He found a large area of shallowly buried igneous rock-type apatite in the nearby mountains. The average content of phosphorus pentoxide was 2.3-3.1%.
"Let's just check out the area nearby."
Ke Yong and others naturally had no objection to Jiang Miao's instructions.
After driving slowly for more than three hours along several town roads or dirt roads, Jiang Miao got a rough idea of this igneous rock-type apatite vein.
The igneous apatite in this area is distributed in flaky form, which is one of the characteristics of igneous rock mineralization. The mining area is 7.9 to 11.6 kilometers wide, 47 to 49 kilometers long, 12 to 15 meters thick, and 5 to 20 meters deep. Part of the area can be mined in open pits.
The average phosphorus content of the igneous rock-type apatite here is 2.3-3.1%, and a small part can reach 7.2%, but the proportion is very small.
The cost of mining this kind of mineral vein is too high. It is estimated that the local mineral exploration department has already inspected it and determined that it has no industrial value.
However, the total amount of igneous rock-type apatite minerals here is very large, as much as 50 billion cubic meters, which is almost 150 billion tons of ore.
Based on the average phosphorus pentoxide content of 2.7%, it contains approximately 4.05 million tons of phosphorus pentoxide.
If traditional technology is used for refining, the mining and refining companies will suffer losses and be left with nothing.
In fact, igneous rocks in northern regions generally contain apatite, but the content is too low and has no industrial value.
Similar to the igneous rock-type apatite under Jiang Miao's feet at this moment, the entire north must have at least hundreds of billions of tons of reserves.
So how does Jiang Miao solve the problem of mining costs?
The answer lies in biomining technology.
The so-called biomining is to utilize the special preferences of bacteria and fungi for certain elements to enrich specific elements from minerals and water bodies.
For example, the root nodules of legumes are essentially the result of bacteria fixing nitrogen from the air.
There are also many poor copper mines that are currently mined using biomining technology.
The advantages of biomining are low energy consumption, environmental friendliness, and the ability to process lean ores.
The disadvantage is that the efficiency is relatively low, and the microorganisms require specific culture reaction tanks. In addition, there are relatively few bacteria and fungi that can efficiently enrich specific elements, and they are also difficult to cultivate artificially.
And this is exactly what Jiang Miao is good at.
His mining plan was to drill wells and inject a refined solution containing specific bacteria and nutrient solution, allowing the bacteria to multiply wildly in the surrounding strata, enriching the phosphorus in the rock strata, and then regularly extract the refined solution while replenishing the nutrient solution.
The well will be abandoned after the phosphorus content in the surrounding underground rock strata has been absorbed to only about 0.3%.
Jiang Miao has tried more than a dozen types of bacteria in the laboratory.
Currently, only three types of bacteria have been selected for key research, namely: Rhodospirilla crimson, Sphaerocystis planktonicum, and nitrifying bacteria.
The reason for choosing these three bacteria is naturally that they are not pathogenic bacteria, and even if they are infected, there will not be much risk.
Many other genera such as Chromocomyces, Begiomolus, Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, and Pseudomonas can cause fatal infections in humans and animals, so they should be excluded.
Jiang Miao is more optimistic about planktonic Escherichia coli.
Planktonic Coccidioides is mainly distributed in flowing fresh water rich in organic matter, such as polluted rivers, filtration ponds and activated sludge, and is extremely aerobic.
It has the function of dissolving phosphorus and potassium, and can also activate the silicon, calcium, and magnesium elements in the soil, increase the supply of iron, manganese, copper, zinc, molybdenum, and boron, improve or prolong fertilizer efficiency, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, improve crop resistance, prevent or alleviate diseases, and during its growth and reproduction process, it can also produce organic acids, amino acids, polysaccharides, hormones, and other substances that are beneficial to plant absorption and utilization.
Therefore, if planktonic Coccidioides is injected into groundwater wells, serious pollution can be avoided. When they are needed to enrich phosphorus, air is pumped into the well. If they are no longer needed, the nutrient solution is stopped and the wellhead is sealed, which can suffocate the planktonic Coccidioides underground.
In addition to enriching phosphorus, planktonic Cocci can also enrich potassium, which is equivalent to killing two birds with one stone.
Unlike phosphorus and potassium extracted by traditional industrial methods, phosphorus and potassium extracted by planktonic Coccidioides is actually an organic fertilizer. It only requires adjusting the phosphorus-potassium ratio and can be sold directly as organic fertilizer, which reduces a process step.
The only trouble now is that it is difficult to cultivate planktonic Cocci.
The isolation and purification of this bacterium is relatively difficult. The common method is to use low-nutrient enrichment culture. Liquid preservation is often used in general laboratories. In addition, it can also be preserved by simple preservation methods, liquid nitrogen ultra-low temperature preservation methods, etc.
Fortunately, Jiang Miao can know the various characteristics of planktonic Cocci through their gene sequences.
He used agar as the culture medium, added some specific ingredients, then planted the planktonic Coccidia bacteria, allowed it to multiply for 3 days, and finally directly produced the bacteria blocks through the freeze-drying process.
This thing can be preserved for a long time in a sealed pure nitrogen environment, which is convenient for large-scale production and release of planktonic Cocci.
During use, the mushroom blocks are thrown into the water, and then specific nutrient powder is added and air is allowed to flow in. In the summer when the temperature is relatively high, it can reproduce rapidly within a few hours. Finally, the planktonic Coccidian extract can be injected into the well.
Jiang Miao conducted a simulation experiment and found that it only takes about 10 days, with the support of a specific nutrient solution, for the floating Saccharomyces cerevisiae to absorb the phosphorus within a radius of 3 to 5 meters, so that the floating Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the extract has multiplied to the limit, at which time the mineral liquid can be extracted.
After the mineral bacteria liquid is extracted, it is injected into the separation pool, and ultrasound is used to expel the floating Coccidia to a local area of the pool.
This is because Jiang Miao discovered through studying the genes and body structure of planktonic Cocci, that they are very sensitive to and disgusted by specific ultrasonic waves. As long as this special frequency ultrasonic wave is continuously emitted on one side of the water body, they can be actively moved away, thereby achieving re-enrichment.
The reason for doing this is to reduce the waste of water resources and allow 95% of the water in the mineral bacteria liquid to be injected into the well again.
The remaining highly enriched mineral-containing bacterial liquid can be evaporated naturally or by heating to obtain crystals rich in phosphorus, potassium and organic matter.
Using this process, if it can be rolled out on a large scale, it would only cost about 2.29 yuan to extract one ton of pure phosphorus (equivalent to 870 tons of phosphorus pentoxide) on average.
At the same time, 50 to 600 kilograms of potassium (equivalent to 95 to 1140 kilograms of potassium chloride) can be extracted, depending on the potassium content in the rock formation.
This cost is similar to that of phosphorus pentoxide produced domestically from phosphate rock. The current domestic production cost of phosphorus pentoxide is around 400 yuan per ton.
Moreover, the technology of bio-mining phosphorus and potassium by floating Coccidioides has very little environmental pollution and consumes little water resources. It does not require large-scale blasting and excavation, nor does it require too much mining and smelting equipment.
It is precisely these advantages that make the overall cost of this technology similar to that of traditional phosphate extraction methods.
The emergence of this technology means that the domestic phosphate industry reserves will increase by hundreds of billions of tons. Even if the phosphate content of these ore rocks is only 2-3%, billions of tons of pure phosphorus can be extracted.
If the domestic consumption is 2000 million tons of pure phosphorus per year, these billions of tons of pure phosphorus can support domestic demand for hundreds of years.
However, Jiang Miao estimated that this technology can most likely only be used as a reserve technology, because the country has been trying to reduce the scale of local phosphate mining in recent years and find ways to solve the phosphate supply problem through external purchases.
It is very likely that the authorities will approve several companies to use this technology, and then limit the scale within a certain range. This will ensure that there is a corresponding reserve of technical talent without the need for large-scale mining. If the international environment really deteriorates suddenly, the reserve talent of these companies can be used to quickly expand production.
(End of this chapter)