Chapter 248 Ultra-low Temperature Evaporation

Chapter 248 Ultra-low Temperature Evaporation

Chapter 248 Ultra-low Temperature Evaporation

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye, it was already the end of October in Minqin County, with freezing weather.

After nearly a month of debugging, the two special bean silk production workshops have completed the debugging work and can now start producing ordinary silicon bean silk yarn and silicon carbide tube yarn.

At the same time, the other two new workshops are also being renovated at a rapid pace and are expected to be put into use by the end of December this year.

More than 50 relevant scientific researchers have also arrived at the Minqin Photovoltaic Laboratory, which was just established in October.

Huang Yuguan, the head of the photovoltaic laboratory who jumped from a photovoltaic company, and Xie Ruilin, a researcher poached from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have already obtained the freshly-made silicon carbide tube material.

As soon as they got the materials, they couldn't wait to try them out.

The woven fine cloth is not transparent but pitch black because the silicon carbide tube is very thin, with a diameter generally between 124 nanometers and 127 nanometers.

After connecting the other supporting components of the photovoltaic panel, Huang Yuguan looked up and ordered: "Turn on the testing equipment."

"Okay, Director Huang."

"Start the simulated lighting system."

"Yes."

As simulated light shone on the pitch-black silicon carbide tube fabric, devices that detected current, voltage, resistance, and the like also received various data.

Chief researcher Xie Ruilin stared at the data on the instrument, while quickly recording the feedback data with the ballpoint pen in his hand.

After half an hour.

"Dr. Xie, what's the situation?"

Xie Ruilin raised his head slightly: "The effect is better than expected, the average photoelectric conversion efficiency is about 21.7%."

"Oh?" Huang Yuguan was a little surprised by the result: "If the data is this, then we can consider direct production."

"Direct production is also possible. Director Huang, do you know how much this thing costs?"

Huang Yuguan has worked in the photovoltaic industry for five or six years and is very familiar with the situation. He said with a smile: "The cost of this silicon carbide tube is very low. At least it will be very cheap if we purchase it internally."

"How much exactly? How much per square meter?"

"The factory calculates the cost by ton, and the production cost of one ton is about 8 yuan."

Xie Ruilin raised his glasses, looking very shocked: "8 per ton?" Then he picked up a document on the table and flipped through the parameters: "About 246 grams per square meter... One ton is about 4065 square meters, and one square meter is only 19.68 yuan? Damn!"

"If this thing goes on the market, traditional photovoltaic panel manufacturers will probably collapse completely," Huang Yuguan joked.

Xie Ruilin didn't worry about this kind of market. After all, when he worked at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he didn't participate in much actual industrial confrontation. He touched the prickly stubble on his chin and said, "Director Huang, I heard that the airship company plans to install this thing on the upper part of the airship?"

"Yes! With this performance, it is estimated that 10 square meters of photovoltaic power generation area is not needed. After all, such a large area can generate too much electricity. If so much electricity cannot be used, the airship can only choose to abandon the electricity or add batteries."

Huang Yuguan answered while taking out a confidential version of the customized tablet computer and found some design information of the airship company:

"The largest airship currently, the Blue Whale 3, consumes 1150 kWh of electricity per hour, and the maximum 24-hour power consumption is only 27600 kWh. Even if we add other power consumption such as lifting cargo, compressing hydrogen, and refrigeration, the daily power consumption will not exceed 4 kWh."

"If that's the case, 10 square meters of silicon carbide photovoltaic panels is indeed too much." Xie Ruilin picked up a ballpoint pen and calculated: "Considering that it is just a supplement, I think 2 square meters will be enough."

Huang Yuguan also agreed with this data: "2 square meters, under ideal conditions, an average of 3.47 kWh of electricity can be generated per day, which can basically meet about 86% of the daily electricity demand. This can also reduce the scale of battery configuration, and only about half of the previous batteries are needed."

Xie Ruilin smiled and shook his head: "Forget it, let's leave this matter to the airship company to consider! Let's study how to improve the technology!"

"Too."

Everyone discussed how to improve the technology.

After discussing for several hours, they came up with several ways to improve the product, such as thickening the fabric, doping with gallium arsenide, and using a special weaving structure.

At the same time, two other groups are conducting various tests on silicon carbide tube photovoltaic panels.

These include service life assessment, attenuation rate over years of use, high UV environment, strong wind and sand environment, high salinity environment, high temperature environment, low temperature environment, vacuum radiation environment and other usage conditions and service life assessment.

Just now.

The dome structure of the airship dock has also entered the installation stage.

The first stage is to install the frame.

The one-piece ultra-light arch bridge structure can be easily lifted by a crane.

"Slow down..." The construction party's safety officer watched closely.

Suddenly, a strong northwest wind blew in, carrying sand with it. The very light arch bridge frame was shaken constantly by the wind.

The worker who was pulling and guiding the traction rope quickly fixed it to the counterweight prepared in advance to prevent the skeleton from being shaken by the wind.

After a while, I saw the wind died down.

The construction commander quickly picked up the intercom and said, "Hurry up, get moving."

As the hollow mortise and tenon structure at the bottom of the skeleton was slowly inserted into the high-strength steel columns reserved in the foundation, several workers lifted the huge nuts non-stop and installed them on the screws as thick as their arms.

After the installation, another group of workers used a high-pressure air gun to blow away the dust on the nuts, screws and the surface of the steel columns, then quickly sprayed them with quick-drying protective paint, and then put on a layer of engineering plastic protective cover.

This dock is the smallest one, with a length of 300 meters, a width of 100 meters and a height of 100 meters.

Standing on the ground, it appears as a hemisphere from the front, and like a cylinder half buried underground when viewed from the side.

Due to the modification of the design plan, there were no photovoltaic panels on the surface before. Now, new photovoltaic panels will be installed on the domes of these docks to enhance the energy self-sufficiency of the base.

Just when the construction of the airship factory was in full swing.

The 511 Laboratory of Minqin R&D Center, which is responsible for researching the application of new materials, also discovered a very valuable application at this time.

The laboratory mainly studies the deep application aspects of silicon carbide tubes.

Its chief researcher Zhang Shuli looked at the experimental equipment in front of him and couldn't help but become excited.

As the negative pressure system of the equipment started, a steady stream of pure water was pumped up from the sewage tank at the bottom.

In less than twenty minutes, about 90% of one cubic meter of sewage was pumped out.

Zhang Shuli picked up the sampler, drew 20 samples, and sent them to the testing laboratory of the R&D center for a comprehensive ingredient test.

While waiting for the test report, they conducted more than a dozen experiments, using local urban sewage, salt water from a nearby salt lake, and chemically contaminated water mixed by the laboratory itself, and then conducted water pumping experiments.

After getting the test report.

"Dr. Zhang, good news, good news..."6 A researcher's face was full of joy.

"The results are out?" Zhang Shuli jumped up from his seat.

The researcher panted heavily: "Hoohoo...it's out. It turns out to be ultrapure water."

“Okay, okay…” Zhang Shuli took the test report and read it very carefully. His body was even shaking slightly because he was too excited.

"Dr. Zhang, we succeeded."

"Low-cost desalination technology was not expected to be realized in this way."

More than a dozen researchers were ecstatic.

The water pumping technology they studied uses a silicon carbide tube with an inner pore diameter of 46 to 49 nanometers. During the sintering process, aluminum powder and calcium powder are added to the graphite powder to form a special inner wall structure.

This new type of silicon carbide nanotube only requires a pressure difference on both sides of the pipe, and the water molecules on the high-pressure side will automatically flow to the low-pressure side.

To be precise, the water molecules on the high-pressure side will "evaporate". The principle of this evaporation is the ultra-low temperature evaporation caused by the vacuum state inside this type of silicon carbide nanotubes.

Therefore, these very small pressure differences can cause the water on the high-pressure side to evaporate quickly, and then the water vapor molecules will be continuously sucked to the low-pressure side.

In this case, you only need to maintain low air pressure on one side to obtain a steady supply of ultra-clean water.

Originally, Zhang Shuli and others used a horizontal water pumping mode, but they did not succeed in obtaining ultra-clean water. Instead, the nanotubes were blocked by impurities.

Until two days ago, they accidentally placed silicon carbide nanotubes vertically above the water, which seemed to open the door to a new world.

This placement allows water molecules to pass through the nanotubes in the form of water vapor, while other components cannot move upward due to gravity. This ensures that the inside of the pipe will not be easily blocked and can operate for a long time.

This is also the prerequisite for achieving ultra-low-cost seawater purification.

Otherwise, the silicon carbide nanotubes need to be replaced frequently, which is a considerable cost expenditure.

In addition, this small pressure difference in pumping requires almost no heat source to heat the seawater, further reducing its cost.

After Zhang Shuli got excited, he quickly calmed down and ordered, "Everyone, prepare the report as soon as possible. I will report this to the boss in the evening. The boss will not forget everyone's hard work."

"Yes."

"Don't worry! We will definitely not let you down at this critical moment."

Zhang Shuli immediately assigned various tasks and asked everyone in the laboratory to work overtime and make sure to carefully prepare the experimental data.

After all, this technology is very important.

Their laboratory has estimated that the small equipment in the laboratory alone can pump out 65 cubic meters of ultra-clean water a day, with an energy consumption of less than 3 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Including equipment depreciation and site fees, as well as other miscellaneous expenses, the cost of each cubic meter of ultra-pure water will not exceed 0.05 yuan.

This cost can easily beat all current seawater purification technologies.

(End of this chapter)