Chapter 238: Transportation Change
Chapter 238: Transportation Change
Time goes back to five hours ago.
The soybean silk processing laboratory at Wansheng Knitting Factory.
A dozen researchers are working hard.
Deputy Technical Director Yang Yuanzhen rushed in hurriedly and shouted, "The boss is here, everyone cheer up."
"oh oh…"
"real or fake!?"
A researcher wearing glasses accidentally knocked over a bottle of boric acid. He came to his senses and cursed in a low voice: "Damn! What I said is true..."
"Huizi? What's wrong?" Yang Yuanzhen frowned.
Kou Hui, who was wearing glasses, shook his head and replied with a dry laugh: "Nothing."
"Be careful, the boss takes this matter very seriously, don't let him down at the critical moment..."
At this moment, the assistant to the factory director came over and whispered something in Yang Yuanzhen's ear. Yang Yuanzhen breathed a sigh of relief, but he did not let his guard down. After all, the boss's actions were not something he could decide. He could only continue to instruct, "Keep doing your work and follow the procedures in the laboratory safety manual."
"understood."
Kou Hui was busy dealing with the mistake just now and quickly disposed of the spilled boric acid solution safely. However, the artificial silk and artificial spider silk contaminated by the boric acid solution could definitely not be used anymore.
However, due to the management of the laboratory, the reason for such scrapping must be stated. He was worried that Yang Yuanzhen would discover his mistake, so he planned to get away with it.
He pretended to process these artificial silk and artificial spider silk, using the direction of boric acid treatment as an excuse to conceal the matter.
As the experimental research progressed, Kou Hui frowned, as he discovered a very strange situation.
The artificial spider silk that had been dyed with boric acid had undergone a change that caught him off guard.
He felt somewhat uneasy when he went to eat fried rice noodles with mackerel across Tengfei Road.
Another researcher took a sip of Coke and said, "Huizi? Why do you look so distracted?"
"Nothing, I'm just thinking about an experimental problem." Kou Hui would certainly not tell the other party about his experiment. After all, this kind of thing could be big or small. If the other party went to tell on him, then he would lose more than he gained.
In the afternoon, he took some samples, packed them and sent them to Nanhu Research Center for a molecular-level analysis.
Unable to figure out what this special change was, Kou Hui did not report it, but continued to replicate his research from the morning.
He not only experimented with artificial spider silk, but also with yarn and silk cloth made from artificial spider silk.
When he was processing silk and yarn, he did not find any obvious problems. However, when it came to silk cloth, he discovered a problem.
"Is it really like this?" Kou Hui murmured to himself.
He looked at the artificial spider silk cloth in front of him that had been soaked in boric acid. After washing with acid, it was dried in a dryer. There was not much change in other tests. The only big change was the airtightness.
During the test, the airtightness of this silk cloth of normal density was enhanced many times. However, Kou Hui was unable to test out how much the airtightness was increased because the laboratory did not have enough equipment.
For more than a week, Kou Hui was doing related experiments.
The air tightness of silk cloth treated with boric acid is indeed very good, especially the silk cloth woven with high count and special textile technology. After being treated with a specific content of boric acid solution, its air tightness almost reaches an extreme.
His experimental report also attracted the attention of technical director Meng Feng and deputy technical director Yang Yuanzhen.
The two applied for an electron microscope and other experimental equipment in the headquarters laboratory and began to conduct comprehensive testing on the silk fabrics.
After the results of electron microscope testing and other testing items come out.
Everyone was shocked.
Meng Feng raised his glasses. "Boric acid reacts with an amino acid in artificial spider silk protein to form special nanostructures. These structures combine with each other to fill the gaps in the silk cloth."
“No wonder the airtightness has become so high.”
"Old Yang, please arrange for someone to extract the amino acids of this special spider silk protein."
"Okay, I'll make arrangements right away."
In fact, there are many types of amino acids in nature.
Although there are usually only twenty-one amino acids that make up protein, there are still many amino acids in nature that do not participate in the composition of protein, such as various amino acids in plants.
The amino acids in this artificial spider silk protein are not protein amino acids, but plant-type amino acids from soybeans. However, due to the use of calcium peroxide solution to treat soy protein, this amino acid is also fixed in the soybean silk.
The experiment continues.
As the research deepened, the reaction between this amino acid and boric acid solution was also studied.
The result was disappointing to everyone.
The reason is that although the amino acids separated separately will react with boric acid, they cannot form a dense nanostructure.
Of course, they did not gain nothing.
They found that this amino acid cannot form a dense nanostructure alone, but it can assist silk cloth in forming a denser nanostructure. Especially after adding glycerol as an auxiliary agent, the nanostructure formed can almost be described as airtight.
The airtightness of this thing is about 7.4 times higher than the best airtight commercial film currently available.
Moreover, even hydrogen, which has very good permeability properties, has difficulty penetrating into modified soybean silk cloth.
The weight of the modified soybean silk cloth is not high. On the premise of ensuring its airtightness, the weight of this material per square meter is about 160 grams to 190 grams.
For example, the minimum standard of 160 grams is still about 3.9 times more airtight than current commercial products.
If this thing is used as an airbag to store hydrogen and helium, the annual leakage rates of 160g modified soybean silk cloth are: / for hydrogen and / for helium.
If 190g modified soybean silk cloth is used, the annual leakage rate of hydrogen will be only /, and the annual leakage rate of helium will be only /.
In addition to being a storage container for gases such as hydrogen and helium, the biggest use of this thing is as an airship airbag.
For an aircraft, the weight of every component is extremely important, because every kilogram of weight deducted from a component means that the aircraft's payload increases by one kilogram.
Another advantage of using modified soybean silk cloth as an airship airbag is that its strength and elasticity are very good, basically about three times that of carbon fiber. This means that the airbag layer does not require too many composite layers and can be completed in one step.
In addition, modified bean silk thread can replace the mooring cables of airships; if combined with other materials, it can also be used as the skeleton and skin material of airships.
It is estimated that about 50% of the weight can be deducted from the airship's airbags, skin, frame and cables.
Take the Feijing LCA60T airship, a joint venture between China and Gaul, as an example.
The airship has a maximum load capacity of 60 tons, a maximum take-off weight of 200 tons, and a dead weight of just over 130 tons.
In addition to the motor system, personnel support system, instrument system, etc., which are difficult to deduct, the other skin, frame, airbag, cable, etc., occupy about 100 tons. In other words, if the bean silk material is fully used, the dead weight of the Flying Whale LCA60T airship can be compressed to about 80 tons, and the payload can be increased to about 110 tons.
If helium is replaced with hydrogen, the payload can be increased to 126 tons while the volume of the airbag remains unchanged.
126吨的有效载荷，可以运输5个20尺集装箱、4个40尺集装箱。
As for the risk of explosion of hydrogen airships, this is actually common knowledge in the outdated era. Now various technologies are used to improve them, and hydrogen airships basically have no risk of explosion or fire.
For example, if modified bean silk material with high air tightness and ultra-low permeability is used as the airbag, the annual leakage of hydrogen is only 0.7 ten-thousandths. This hydrogen leaks between the skin and the airbag. As long as ventilation is carried out regularly, there will basically be no large amount of hydrogen accumulation in the interlayer.
The hydrogen inside the airbag will not burn or explode if there is no air or oxygen in a suitable proportion.
As long as the airship is not used to carry passengers, but simply as a transport airship, or even improved into an unmanned airship, even if it explodes or catches fire, it will not cause serious casualties.
However, when planning the route, it must not pass through cities and important facilities.
Airships are originally very large in size and certainly cannot be docked in cities. If they are replaced with hydrogen airbags, considering their safety, they can only build airship docking stations in the suburbs.
There are many advantages of airships, especially when their payload is increased to such a large amount and the expensive and non-renewable helium is discarded, the cost-effectiveness of airships will become very high.
For example, the built-in airbag volume of the Feijing LCA60T airship is 18 cubic meters. If high-purity helium is used, the cost starts at 1800 million yuan. Based on an annual leakage rate of 2% to 5%, the annual cost of replenishing helium will be 36 to 90 yuan.
After switching to bean silk materials and hydrogen, the cost of 18 cubic meters of hydrogen is about 30 to 60 yuan. With a leakage rate of % per year, the cost of replenishing hydrogen each year is only a few hundred yuan.
At present, the production cost of bean silk materials is about 4500 yuan per ton. If large-scale production is carried out, it can be reduced to about 3500 yuan per ton.
Referring to the structure of Feijing LCA60T airship, approximately 35 tons of soybean silk material is needed, with a material cost of 122500 yuan.
Together with other materials and supporting facilities, the cost of an airship with similar specifications to the Feijing LCA60T airship can be reduced to about 300 million.
Considering this kind of semi-natural organic material, its service life is generally not high. Assuming it is 10 years, the annual depreciation cost is about 30 yuan.
If the effective flight time is 7200 hours a year, the depreciation fee per hour is about 42 yuan. When fully loaded with 126 tons, the depreciation fee is 0.33 yuan per ton of cargo per hour.
However, the actual depreciation cost is not that much, because the cost of parts made of organic materials is not high, while parts such as motors, instrument systems, refrigeration systems, etc., have a service life of at least 20 years.
After Jiang Miao learned about the situation of Dousi Laboratory.
He called together several executives at headquarters.
"Boss! I believe that the company's technical strength is no problem." Qin Hanming, the head of the market research department, stood up and said:
"According to some information we have investigated, the current domestic airship technology is not advanced. Even AVIC mainly produces medium-sized sightseeing airships, and the technical accumulation in large-scale transport airships is insufficient. Therefore, our company is likely to establish a subsidiary for airship manufacturing."
"There's no way. China didn't pay much attention to airship transportation in the past, or there were only a few serious large-scale transport airship manufacturing companies in the world." Lei Bo, who is in charge of the battery business unit, shook his head.
Gu Huaiying, the head of the logistics division, looked through the data on bean silk materials and the airship concept proposed by Meng Feng, the head of the laboratory, and then he looked up:
“I support this project.”
"Tell me what you think." Jiang Miao asked directly.
"Boss, the core business of our logistics division is logistics transportation, and the core mode of logistics transportation is road transportation, supplemented by water transportation."
"I know."
Gu Huaiying continued: "Among the costs of road transportation, energy consumption and tolls are the core. Currently, the cost of our fuel trucks is about 60% fuel costs, 5% tolls, 15% labor costs, 10% fixed asset depreciation and maintenance, and 10% other costs."
As he spoke, he wrote down the data on the whiteboard.
"In terms of energy consumption, we will gradually switch to electric trucks in the future, and we expect energy costs to drop to around 10% to 17%; but it is almost impossible to reduce tolls and bridge tolls."
In fact, the bridge tolls and road fees paid by Hailufeng Company are the benefits of Green Channel. Otherwise, in the normal logistics transportation process, the bridge tolls and road fees can reach between 35% and 40% of the total cost.
Gu Huaiying said seriously: "Although we can enjoy the benefits of Green Pass in the early stage, as our company's product types increase, such as the launch of various deep-processed products, we will not be able to enjoy the benefits of Green Pass during transportation."
"That makes sense. If we can't reduce transportation costs, it will be difficult for us to compete with other companies." Qin Hanming nodded slightly.
Gu Huaiying proposed to Jiang Miao: "Boss, if the manufacturing cost of airships can be reduced to such a low level, then we can build some low-altitude dedicated lines to avoid highway and bridge tolls. The tolls and bridge fees saved every year are an astronomical figure."
"Boss, according to the information collected by our market research department, the average annual toll and bridge toll for domestic tractors is about 9.1 yuan." Qin Hanming added:
"If we follow the specifications of the Flying Whale airship of the Gallic Enterprise, it can be fully loaded with 126 tons of cargo, which is roughly equivalent to 4 to 5 tractors. The tolls and bridge fees that need to be paid in a year will be around 36 to 45. The tolls collected from ten years of operation can buy a new airship."
Jiang Miao certainly knew that if the manufacturing and maintenance costs of airships could be reduced, the cost-effectiveness of airships would indeed be much higher than that of large trucks.
After all, the energy consumption of airships is very low and their speed is not slow, usually reaching 100 to 120 kilometers per hour, and they can travel in a straight line in the air.
The Flying Whale LCA60T airship manufactured by Gaul Enterprises flies at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. When fully loaded, it can fly 4500 kilometers and consumes an average of 150 to 300 degrees of electricity per hour.
In other words, if Hailufeng Company's airship is designed and manufactured based on the Feijing LCA60T airship, the power consumption will be similar.
Calculated based on the maximum load of 126 tons of cargo, the average electricity consumption per ton of cargo per hour is 1.78 kWh. Based on the price of RMB 1 per kWh, the electricity cost is RMB 1.78 per ton of cargo per hour.
Add in depreciation of 0.3 yuan per hour and other expenses of 0.3 yuan, the total is 2.38 yuan per hour.
The airship can fly 60 to 120 kilometers per hour, and the average transportation cost per kilometer per ton of cargo is around 0.04 yuan or 0.08 yuan.
The flight distance is 1000 kilometers, and the transportation cost per ton of cargo is 40 to 80 yuan.
This cost can crush road transportation and can even be compared with river and sea transportation.
If it weren't for the limit on the airship's carrying capacity, inland waterway transportation might not necessarily beat airships. After all, airships can be 5 to 10 times faster than inland waterway transportation.
To a certain extent, once the manufacturing cost and gas cost of airships are compressed, their cost-effectiveness will be very high.
Even though road transport can reach hundreds of kilometers per hour on highways if the road conditions are good, the problem is that hundreds of kilometers of road transport require passing through winding roads, while airships can fly in the straightest possible direction, which saves a lot of distance.
The speed is slightly faster than road transportation, the cruising range can easily reach several thousand kilometers, there is basically no traffic jam in the low-altitude airspace, the payload can reach more than 0.04 tons, and the transportation cost per kilometer per ton of goods is between 0.08 yuan and yuan.
This performance can definitely occupy a large ecological niche in various types of transportation.
As for the situation where flying is impossible due to bad weather, this is not a disadvantage unique to airships. Airplanes, ships, and vehicles are also affected by bad weather.
The problem that the airship must not be affected by strong winds during docking can actually be solved through engineering means.
For example, by building a supporting airship station, the airship can be quickly fixed with cables and the cargo handover of the airship can be completed at the same time.
Or build a super-large airship, increase the overall weight of the airship to several thousand tons, and use its own weight to increase stability.
After discussion among everyone, Jiang Miao agreed to the logistics division's proposal to develop a transport airship. He asked Gu Huaiying to prepare an airship manufacturing subsidiary, which would be responsible for the research and development and manufacturing of transport airships.
As for talent, there are actually quite a few relevant talents in the country. At most, we can spend money to recruit a group of technical personnel, especially the designers of airship structures, who are the talents that Hailufeng Company needs most.
After all, Hailufeng has solved most of the material problems, and there are many technologically mature suppliers in China for things like motors, electronic equipment, instruments, flight control equipment, etc., so Hailufeng does not need to worry about this at all.
As the world's largest and most comprehensive industrial country, it has all kinds of parts suppliers. The airship subsidiary of Hailufeng Company only needs to design the airship, and there will be basically no major problems in manufacturing.
(End of this chapter)