Chapter 203 Self-sustaining

Chapter 203 Self-sustaining

Chapter 203 Self-sustaining
This evening is the latest.

The first, second and third floors of the office building in the northwest corner of the Yangcheng Warehousing Center were cleared out.

Li Haitao, the person in charge of the storage center, was discussing something with a middle-aged man in work clothes.

"Captain Yang, we have already renovated the interior according to the blueprints, including the sealed door and disinfection passage."

"That's good." Yang Lingyu looked at the time on his mobile phone and frowned slightly.

"Captain Yang, I wonder how many days the installation will take so I can make some logistics arrangements."

"Installation and debugging will take about three or four days." Yang Lingyu checked the time on his phone again, and then glanced at the sky which was about to set.

Perhaps seeing Yang Lingyu's anxiety, Li Haitao smiled and said, "Don't worry, Captain Yang. Trucks entering Yangcheng during this time are slow, even in the suburbs. There are too many people going home after get off work."

The two continued chatting for half an hour.

Finally, we saw several large trucks entering the unloading area through the truck-only lane.

The forklift driver carefully unloaded the battery boxes from the truck one by one.

There are a total of 150 battery boxes, which is a small part of the equipment squeezed out of the biological power station in Fair Town.

Seeing that all the equipment had arrived, Yang Lingyu quickly led the engineers and technicians of the power engineering team and began using a crane to move the battery boxes one by one to the second floor.

The second floor, which covers an area of ​​400 square meters, has been renovated in advance. As the battery boxes were installed one by one, power engineers and technicians quickly connected the lines.

The next step is to install various supporting equipment, including the distribution cabinets, transformer boxes, control equipment, lead-carbon batteries, monitoring center, etc. on the third floor.

Finally, there is the backup diesel generator room on the first floor, the waste extraction system, the liquid-slag separation system, the liquid reflux system, the slag disinfection system, and the temporary slag storage room next to the office building.

It was already the third day after the Winter Solstice when these things were installed.

Yang Lingyu and others, wearing protective clothing, accompanied Lao Fang, an electrician from the storage center, into the microbial fuel cell room on the second floor.

"Lao Fang, you have read the technical manual. From now on, this place is under your management. You must strictly follow the manual. If you encounter something you don't understand or an emergency, don't mess around on your own. Call the power office directly."

Old Fangtou said calmly, "I understand."

Yang Lingyu then instructed: "Now follow the technical manual and I will guide you."

"Huh..." Lao Fang took a deep breath.

I first checked the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the room, and they were the same as normal atmospheric concentrations.

Then he came to the battery box that needed to be operated and pulled down the power switch first to prevent the battery box from being connected to the circuit during operation.

He pulled the water pipe of the water circulation system and injected 0.85 cubic meters of water into the battery box. When he saw that the water level reached the water level scale inside the battery box, he quickly stopped injecting water. The water was all tap water that had been disinfected in advance.

Lao Fang, who was a little flustered, put down the water pipe, stopped and recalled the next operation procedure.

Five barrels of nutrient powder were taken out from the storage room on the second floor. Each barrel was a standard 20 kilograms. These powders were composed of dry cow dung, straw, soy genistein, bacteria and some trace elements that aid fermentation. They were equivalent to prefabricated nutrients and could be directly added to the battery box.

As five barrels of powder were poured into the battery box, Lao Fang picked up the stirring fiberglass rod and stirred it quickly for a while. The water and powder in the battery box quickly merged into a thick "curry sauce".

Because it has been dried and crushed, the cow dung solution does not emit any odor.

In fact, the smell doesn’t matter, because the ventilation system of this room has odor removal and filtering equipment, which can effectively reduce the odor.

What's more, cow dung is not that smelly, at least it is much better than pig dung.

"Very good, Lao Fang, you must follow this process from now on."

Lao Fang was sweating profusely: "Captain Yang, can we not wear the protective suit and helmet?"

"No, there are Gram bacteria in these battery fluids. There may be a risk of infection. Unprotected operation is absolutely not allowed. And you must disinfect every time you enter and exit."

"So troublesome..." Lao Fang was a little helpless.

"Don't joke about your own health. If you are discovered by the security guard, you should know the consequences." Yang Lingyu threatened with a serious face and an extremely low voice.

"Uh...I understand." Lao Fang smiled awkwardly and nodded.

It took more than three hours for everyone to inject microbial battery fluid into 150 battery boxes.

There are 150 battery boxes distributed in 5 rooms, with 30 battery boxes in each room. For the convenience of control, the temperature and light intensity are used to adjust the power generation power.

The control system has been programmed in advance. Depending on how much electricity is needed, the system will automatically control the light intensity and indoor temperature to allow the power-generating bacteria to enter the high-efficiency period, medium-efficiency period, low-efficiency period, rest period, and burst period.

The initial organic matter concentration of the battery fluid in the 150 battery boxes is different. This is to facilitate the circulation. On average, the battery fluid of one or two battery boxes needs to be replaced every two and a half days to maintain the entire power supply system and ensure that at least 140 battery boxes can supply power normally.

If this power room operates at full capacity, it can generate 32 kWh of electricity per year, with a maximum daily output of 876 kWh. It is also highly adjustable, with the power generation capacity being able to switch smoothly from 0 kWh to 36.5 kW.

The power generation capacity of this power room is also specially designed for the Yangcheng Storage Center, and can sustain the full load of the storage center, storage supermarket, office building, employee dormitory, and parking lot charging piles.

As for the battery liquid powder, it is naturally produced by the headquarters and then distributed uniformly. The Yangcheng storage center consumes only about 40 kilograms of battery liquid powder on average every day, which is enough to maintain this 60-acre storage center, plus a 50-room self-built house.

Yang Lingyu and his team stayed here for another two days until the entire system was generating electricity normally.

The Yangcheng Warehousing Center also uses its own electricity, which saves the entire warehouse center at least 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity purchasing costs each year.

Although the initial construction of this system will cost 48 to 55 yuan, this cost can be almost recovered in about two years. The designed service life of this system is 30 years, which means annual equipment depreciation fee of 1.6 to 1.83 yuan, plus maintenance, powder, water, and replacement of some parts, the average annual comprehensive operating cost is about 3 yuan.

That is, the cost of one kilowatt-hour of electricity is 0.1 yuan.

As for the labor cost of electrician Lao Fang, he cannot actually be completely counted as the manpower of the power room, because before the power room was built, the storage center needed an electrician to be stationed there. Now it is just making full use of the labor force.

If microbial fuel cells were not so large and required various supporting facilities, their application range would definitely be limited to fixed power stations.

However, the company has planned to purchase a large number of electric vans and electric trucks to be used for delivering goods from the warehouse center to specialty stores and customers.

Storage centers, factories, breeding farms, and other industries with surplus space will gradually plan to build power stations and power rooms, strive to achieve self-sufficiency in electricity, and even obtain part of the profits through charging piles.

Just after the power generation room of Yangcheng Storage Center was put into use.

The local power supply bureau in Yangcheng also sent a team of power engineers. They came mainly to remove the electricity meters and to check the power situation in the storage center.

After meeting Li Haitao, Du Guobiao, the engineer in charge of the team, asked curiously, "Manager Li, are you sure you want to remove the meter? If you remove it now, it will be troublesome to apply for it again in the future. It is better to keep it as a backup."

However, Li Haitao shook his head: "Our internal power supply system can already run smoothly. We also have backup diesel generators and large power storage rooms. Basically, there will be no power problems."

This is also one of the unique advantages of the improved microbial fuel cell. Although the power generation is not large, the power generation capacity is highly controllable and there is no high risk in the power generation conditions.

The power generation capacity is highly controllable and the power generation conditions are not high-risk, which are crucial plus points for small power generation rooms with independent grid construction.

For example, wind power, photovoltaic power, tidal power generation and the like, look at which processing plant or residential area dares to use these power generation equipment independently to build an internal power grid. The instability in the power generation process can easily paralyze the entire power grid.

This is also the reason why power grid systems such as Guodian and Nandian have a love-hate relationship with wind power and photovoltaic power. The fluctuations generated during their power generation process can be called a power grid killer.

After being improved by Jiang Miao, the microbial fuel cell technology does not have the huge volatility of photovoltaic and wind power, and its low-cost and controllable characteristics in the power generation process also make it superior to thermal power stations.

After all, during the operation of the gas turbine in a thermal power station, the range of low-cost adjustable power is relatively narrow.

For a 50MW gas turbine, the greater the reduction in power during operation, the higher the cost per kilowatt-hour of power generation. If the gas turbine shuts down, it will cost a lot to restart it.

Once many devices are running, they cannot be stopped casually, otherwise it will increase a lot of costs.

The new microbial fuel cell technology is different. It controls the power generation by temperature and light intensity, which is much easier than gas turbines.

For example, if you want to stop a microbial fuel cell box from running, you only need to lower the indoor temperature to 16 degrees Celsius and turn off the artificial light source, which will allow the electricity-generating bacteria in it to quickly enter a semi-dormant state and no longer generate electricity.

Microbial fuel cells operate under mild conditions and are not as dangerous as thermal power plants or nuclear power plants. Even if an earthquake occurs, specially prepared disinfectants are stored on the ceiling of the battery room. If the power room collapses due to an earthquake, the targeted disinfectants can quickly kill the electric bacteria and Gram-negative bacteria in the battery fluid.

In fact, these two types of bacteria cannot be spread on a large scale in the natural environment. Outdoor ultraviolet rays, temperature, and microorganisms can easily suppress their spread.

Especially the electric bacteria, which was specially selected by Jiang Miao. There are many restrictions on its large-scale reproduction. Even if it is leaked, there is no way to meet the conditions for its reproduction.

These conditions are easy to achieve in artificial environments, but are basically impossible to achieve in natural environments.

...

Faced with Li Haitao's insistence, the power supply engineer captain Du Guobiao had no choice but to do as he was told: "Aqiang, Dongzi, go check the circuit and then remove the meter."

Several electrical engineers quickly got busy.

After removing the electricity meter at the storage center, they went to the self-built house next door and removed the residential electricity meter as well.

As they were dismantling the machine, one of the power engineers said in surprise, "Brother Du, something is wrong! Where do they get their power?"

"..." Du Guobiao also frowned. He looked up and observed the surroundings, but did not find any photovoltaic panels.

As for wind turbines, Du Guobiao didn't even think about it. Although this place was in the suburbs, there were many residential buildings and factories around it, making it impossible to build a wind power project.

After removing the electric meter, Du Guobiao led his men to the office building of the storage center again.

Hearing Du Guobiao's question, Li Haitao smiled and explained: "This is our company's new technology, microbial fuel cells, and the battery room is on the first to third floors below."

"Microbial fuel cell?" Du Guobiao was confused. It was the first time he heard of this technology.

A relatively young power engineer at the side, who majored in power engineering, had heard of microbial fuel cell technology. "Brother Du, to put it simply, this technology generates electricity through the various activities of microorganisms, but the efficiency is very low and it is still in the laboratory stage."

Du Guobiao asked: "Manager Li, is it convenient for us to take a look?"

After thinking for a while, Li Haitao nodded: "Okay, but you can only be outside the power generation room to avoid contamination by bacteria."

"We are just curious, so it's okay to take a look outside."

Went down to the third floor.

Electrician Lao Fang is working in the control room.

Hearing the knock on the door, he stood up and opened the door: "Manager Li? What's the matter? Is there something wrong with the electricity meter?"

Li Haitao shook his head: "No, these engineers from the power supply bureau want to visit the power generation room, please introduce it to them."

"Visit? No problem." Lao Fang looked at Du Guobiao and the others: "What do you want to see?"

"What's the power of this power room?"

"The maximum power is 36.5 kilowatts."

Du Guobiao and others looked at the equipment and related data in the control room again and found that these were indeed equipment related to power control and there was no problem with the data.

This surprised them very much.

The power room on the second floor can be observed through surveillance cameras.

"Is the power room on the second floor?"

"Yes, on the second floor."

“This area is not very large…”

Li Haitao smiled and said, "It's about 400 square meters, but the five power generation rooms are 300 square meters, and the rest of the area is passages, stairwells, disinfection passages, cloakrooms and other areas."

Du Guobiao took a quick look at the area and was more curious about another question: "How stable is your power generation system?"

"It is very stable, and the power can be adjusted at any time, from 0 to 36.5 kilowatts. However, each adjustment of the power requires a buffer time of about half an hour. We use lead-carbon batteries for temporary dispatch."

“Is it difficult to regulate the conditions?”

“It’s not difficult. It can be controlled using air conditioning and LED lights.”

Du Guobiao's eyes were full of surprise.

The power engineer who knew something about microbial fuel cells rubbed his nose and said: "If it is true that the power can be controlled, then this technology is very useful."

“I wonder what the cost is?”

Li Haitao explained: "For our internal use, not counting R&D expenses, the equipment, consumables and maintenance together cost about 0.375 yuan per kilowatt-hour. As for labor costs, it depends on the situation. Anyway, the larger the scale, the lower the labor costs. The labor cost of our power generation room is about yuan per kilowatt-hour."

For a power station next to a dairy farm, the labor cost is 0.02 to 0.05 yuan per kilowatt-hour.

In fact, in this kind of small power generation room, the maximum management scale of a single electrician is 1000 battery boxes, which means replacing the battery fluid in 3 to 4 battery boxes every day.

If it is a large-scale microbial fuel cell power station, with various auxiliary equipment, one person can manage tens of thousands of battery boxes.

That's the scale effect.

Du Guobiao thinks the labor cost of this power generation room is a bit high: "This labor cost is a bit high! After calculation, the cost of one kilowatt-hour of electricity is 0.47 yuan."

"You can't calculate it that way. We just spread the labor cost of the electrician into the power generation cost. Our storage center is equipped with an electrician, and this is not the limit of our power generation room. As long as the scale is doubled, the labor cost will drop by 50%." Li Haitao continued:

"Our company has conducted tests at the experimental base of the headquarters. Without auxiliary equipment, the maximum management scale of one employee is 1000 battery boxes. With the help of auxiliary equipment, the management scale can reach tens of thousands of battery boxes, and the labor cost is about 0.02-0.05 yuan per kilowatt-hour."

"Effect of scale?" another power engineer mused.

Li Haitao smiled and nodded: "Yes, it is the scale effect. When we finish renovating the office building next door, this seven-story building will be used as a power generation room. By then, we can arrange about 750 battery boxes."

"You may not be able to use up all the electricity you generate, right?" Du Guobiao thought of this question.

"We plan to open a charging station nearby, and we can make some money by then. Of course, the scale will definitely be expanded little by little, and it won't be long before we have 750 battery boxes."

"I see. If it can be used as a companion to a charging station, it would be great."

"If this thing can really regulate power generation so safely and conveniently, I think it can be used as a power dispatching system."

Several electrical engineers were discussing the matter.

In fact, based on their discussion, Nanfang Electric Company has already sent people to Shanmei to investigate the microbial fuel cell technology of Hailufeng Company.

　Next chapter evening (ω)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)