Chapter 259 Dry
Chapter 259 Dry
Shanmei, Hongcao Town.
Hailufeng Hongcao Town Freeze-dried Food Factory.
Seeing the waste water from washing vegetables and fruits being quickly reused through the circulating water purification system, factory manager Lin Lewen was very satisfied.
"Lao He, how is the water consumption in the cleaning workshop now?"
The line leader in the workshop, Lao He, whispered back, “Director, the consumption has been reduced by about 98% compared to before.”
"The new technology is really powerful, especially for a factory like ours that needs to wash a lot of vegetables and fruits every day. It can reduce a lot of costs." Lin Lewen seemed to see that the factory's financial statements at the end of the month looked a little better.
"It can indeed reduce a lot of costs." Lao He deeply agrees.
Although their factory relied on the Hailufeng Company and received a water discount of 2.3 yuan per cubic meter from the local government, compared to their own treatment, they only had to pay 0.015 yuan per cubic meter for electricity, plus 0.003 yuan per cubic meter for depreciation, so the overall cost dropped significantly.
Take the use of 100 cubic meters of fresh water as an example.
Before adopting the new technology, the total cost was 230 yuan.
After adopting the new technology, the overall cost dropped to 6.364 yuan.
The fee is only about 2.7% of the previous level.
In a year, you can save enough money to buy several sets of sewage treatment equipment.
Lin Lewen turned around and saw the factory technical director Huang Meiqin who was in a daze: "Director Huang? What are you thinking about?"
"Huh?" Huang Meiqin finally reacted: "Does this water purification equipment have a backup?"
"Yes, after all, our factory has a set of spare equipment just in case the equipment breaks down or needs repair. The equipment is still in the warehouse. It will be installed next month when the spare water treatment workshop is renovated. Why are you asking this?"
Huang Meiqin had an idea in her mind that she wanted to verify: "Director Lin, I would like to study this set of equipment. I hope you can approve it."
"This... Director Huang, what are you going to research?" Lin Lewen did not agree immediately. After all, a set of equipment cost 5 yuan.
目前民勤集团生产的工业级净水器，一共有3个型号，分别是1M087、3M261、10M870。
The 1M in 087M1 represents the evaporation contact surface of 1 square meter, and the same applies to the other two models.
The 1 in the 087M087 industrial water purifier stands for the ability to extract 87 cubic meters of pure water per hour. Other models follow the same naming convention.
The two devices at the Hongcao Town Freeze-Dried Food Factory are both 1M087 industrial water purifiers. The freeze-drying production line of their factory runs 12 hours a day, but the cleaning workshop, picking workshop, and cutting workshop only run hours a day. Therefore, sewage treatment does not need to be processed all at once, and part of the sewage can be allocated to non-production time periods.
And their factory's production capacity is not large.
The main reason is that the production cost of freeze-dried food is relatively high. Even though their product quality, taste, and cost-effectiveness are all first-class in the market, the price is still relatively high, so the market size has always been small.
"Director Lin, I'm going to research whether it's possible to use a water purifier to dry vegetables and fruits."
"Drying vegetables and fruits with a water purifier?" Lin Lewen was puzzled at first, but then he felt that it was feasible. Although he was a bit of a lazy person, he was not really without any ideas. He just had not found a suitable way, so he chose to sit on his hands.
He thought for a while and felt that the factory could afford to lose tens of thousands of dollars, so he agreed: "I approve it. You write me a research and development project application for funds, materials, and equipment on the grounds that the factory wants to develop a new drying process."
"No problem." Huang Meiqi rubbed her hands together.
The next day, after writing the relevant scientific research project application.
That afternoon, Huang Meiqi took several technicians, electricians, and maintenance workers to move the equipment to the freeze-dried food laboratory.
When the maintenance worker disassembled the outer shell of the water purifier and the coarse filter at the bottom, he saw densely packed nano-needles on the contact surface.
A technician raised his glasses and said, "Director Huang, I have checked some internal information. These nano needles are special silicon carbide tubes. They are very hard and strong, and can withstand ultra-high temperatures of 2800 degrees Celsius. Under normal circumstances, they are difficult to be destroyed."
"I know, let's start the test now!" Huang Meiqi ordered.
"understand!"
Several people placed a pre-treated Red Mike banana into the vacuum box and then installed the water purifier core.
However, the results were far beyond their expectations. The moisture content in the vacuum box increased rapidly, and a lot of water was quickly sucked out.
They soon realized what was happening. A female technician took notes on the situation: "This won't work! The negative pressure in the vacuum box will cause the inner core of the water purifier to absorb moisture from the air in reverse."
Huang Meiqin thought for a moment and said, "Then the other way around."
Put the banana on the other side, and then use the negative pressure of the vacuum box. The moisture in the air in the ordinary box on the side where the banana is placed will quickly be sucked into the water purifier. At the same time, the moisture on the surface of the peeled banana will also evaporate faster.
However, it took 37 hours of evaporation to complete the drying.
"This efficiency is even slower than our freeze-drying equipment." complained a technician with bloodshot eyes.
The female technician who was in charge of taking notes said another point: "The electricity bill is much lower than freeze-drying."
Huang Meiqin frowned: "This efficiency is too slow. Although the electricity bill is reduced, the time cost also needs to be considered."
The bloodshot-eyed technician suggested, "Director, why don't you consider heating it? The inner core of the water purifier can quickly dry the air. If the temperature is raised, the evaporation efficiency can be increased."
"Doesn't heating require electricity? And heating will destroy the nutrients in fruits and vegetables. It's better to use freeze-drying." Another technician reminded.
Suddenly, Huang Meiqin saw the banana in the glass container, which was far away from the nano needles. He quickly ordered: "Put the nano needles in the water purifier's core closer to the banana and see if the drying efficiency can be improved."
Soon the experiment started again.
This time their experiment was very quick.
In particular, the 10 bananas inserted into the nanoneedles were completely dried in less than ten minutes.
"Damn! So fast?" The technician, with bloodshot eyes, took a banana that had been sucked lightly and put it on an electronic scale to measure it. "The weight is much lighter than freeze-dried and heat-dried. I didn't expect the drying effect to be so good after contact."
Crunch, crunch… Another technician broke off a piece and put it directly into his mouth and started chewing: "It's very dry, drier than ordinary freeze-dried bananas, but the banana flavor is almost completely preserved, and the sweetness is much improved."
Huang Meiqin also ate a few pieces: "It is indeed a little dry. If the dryness is controlled well, it should be as dry as freeze-dried bananas."
"But we should have succeeded, right?" The female technician was recording the data of this experiment.
Huang Meiqin shook her head: "We can't be completely sure about just one banana, let's try other products."
"it is good."
Everyone started experimenting with great enthusiasm.
They experimentally dried all the freeze-dried products currently produced in the factory.
The sun was setting outside the window, and Huang Meiqi and others were still busy, but the smiles on their faces were becoming increasingly difficult to suppress.
Dozens of vegetables and fruits tested so far have shown very good drying effects, with an average drying time of 3 to 6 minutes, and all are carried out at normal temperature and pressure. The overall cost is reduced by about 97% compared with the previous freeze-drying process.
Even the factory manager Lin Lewen, who had been paying close attention to this matter, came with several members of the factory management to taste these new types of dried vegetables and fruits.
"This is delicious. The tomato flavor is almost 100% retained, and the moisture is just right."
"I think this okra is good."
"Director, I think we can improve the equipment as soon as possible. If we adopt the new drying process, our drying costs will drop by 97%. We can quickly open up the market by selling at a low price, thereby expanding the scale of production."
Lin Lewen also made up his mind at this time: "I think so too. Director Huang, you should sort out the technical information as soon as possible, and then pack it and hand it over to the Patent Management Department, and let them apply for a patent as soon as possible."
"No problem." Huang Meiqi nodded.
"Also, Deputy Director Li, please contact Minqin Group and ask them to produce a normal temperature fast drying machine according to our requirements."
"Yes, leave it to me."
The factory's management worked overtime overnight.
On the one hand, they see the broad prospects of this technology.
On the other hand, they also know that this technology is very simple, but other companies or scientific research teams have not noticed it. After Minqin Group's various water purifiers are launched on the market on a large scale, someone will definitely discover this use.
Therefore, what they have to do now is to seize the initiative, obtain the patent first, and at the same time expand the production scale of the factory.
You should know that the selling price of a 1M087 industrial water purifier is 5 yuan, but its production cost is less than 3000 yuan, with a gross profit of 4.7 yuan.
This is the power of high-tech industries.
After using the patent of Hongcao Town Freeze-Dried Food Factory, Minqin Group must pay the Patent Management Department about 15% of the gross profit as a technology licensing fee, of which 5% belongs to Hongcao Town Freeze-Dried Food Factory. As the core team of patent research and development, Huang Meiqi's team will receive 2%, and the remaining 3% will belong to all employees of the factory.
For technology research and development completed spontaneously by this type of factory, the company's incentive ratio will be higher. If the technology is developed by professional research and development institutions such as scientific research departments, the incentive ratio will be lower.
The main reason is that there are certain differences between the two R&D models.
Because if it is an R&D project within the factory, if losses occur, the factory management will be responsible.
As for the projects of the scientific research division, many of their projects were approved by Jiang Miao, so if they failed, Jiang Miao would bear the main responsibility, so the responsibility pressure on the R&D team was not that great.
This is the direct proportion between risk and reward.
If factory management does not need to be held accountable, then every factory will continue to carry out scientific research projects, and the result may be a mess.
Hence the restriction.
Lin Lewen approved the normal temperature drying project, so he must take responsibility. If any losses occur, he as the factory director will be the first person responsible, and Huang Meiqi will be the second person responsible.
With such restrictions, factory managers dare not approve scientific research projects at will. They can only calculate a small portion of the factory's annual profits as research funds.
Moreover, these scientific research funds cannot be used casually. The company's finance department, scientific research department, and supervision department will send people to review them to prevent factory management from finding excuses to enrich themselves.
...
Huang Meiqi's team did not rest on their laurels, but continued to carry out various research projects. Since the project has already produced results, they naturally would not stand still and began to increase investment funds.
They had previously been researching freeze-dried fruit punches.
With the new drying technology, they can achieve maximum retention of fruit flavor while producing at low cost.
For example, lemon honey powder can be produced by using ultra-dried lemon slices and dried honey crystals, and then crushing them in a grinder to produce pure natural lemon honey powder.
There are also full-nutrition vegetable and fruit juice powders. A variety of vegetables and fruits are processed through room-temperature drying technology, and then blended into specific vegetable and fruit juice powders. You only need to use boiled water to brew it, and you can get a cup of product that is almost exactly the same as freshly squeezed fruit juice or freshly squeezed vegetable juice.
More than a week later.
The cannery from Magong Town also came to them for cooperation.
“Dry prepared food?”
Huang Meiqi looked at the pre-prepared food samples brought by the cannery director Du Xiang.
Du Xiang pointed to a dozen boxes of pre-prepared vegetable packages and said, "Yes, we want to try drying the pre-prepared vegetable packages to see if we can reduce the overall weight and reduce the cost during transportation, provided that the flavor of the dishes does not change significantly."
"Okay, but your factory has to give us funding, otherwise I won't do this." Huang Meiqi had an expression like a brother settling accounts.
"I know, I know. Our factory can give you 100 million in funding."
"That's no problem."
The two discussed some details of the cooperative research and development, and then left six technicians from the canning factory to help at the freeze-dried food factory.
In the laboratory.
After taking out more than a dozen bags of pre-prepared meals, they looked at the dry, hard and loose pre-prepared meals on the plates and rehydrated them with hot water.
The results were a mixed bag.
A large part of the vegetables in the vegetable dumplings turned into a paste, and only the potatoes and peas with higher starch content, and the beans, eggplant, and celery with higher fiber content could barely maintain their shape.
Leafy vegetables, tomatoes, carrots, onions, and radishes were basically wiped out.
The taste didn't change noticeably.
The meat generally does not change much, especially the lean meat which is relatively dry and tough. After being drained and then rehydrated, it still has the same shape and the flavor is completely preserved.
The fat part becomes very soft and tender, and there is basically no need to chew it. It melts in your mouth and feels like you are eating a mouthful of oil.
Obviously, the overall structure of the fat was destroyed during the water extraction process. The structure of the fat has been denatured after cooking, and it will definitely become very loose after being pumped out and rehydrated.
In the evening, Huang Meiqi and others who did not go home were still doing research.
"Director, it's time for a midnight snack." A technician took the tomato and beef brisket cooking pack that Dryer had given him today, poured it into a bucket of instant noodles, and then poured hot water over it.
After a while, he took a bite and found that the tomato beef brisket did not have enough tomato flavor, so he took a handful of dried tomatoes and put it in.
"It smells so good, give me a bucket."
"Go get it yourself."
After a while, several people had already made instant noodles.
The cooking pack plus instant noodles looks very luxurious.
"This tomato beef brisket tastes pretty good. It feels great when you eat it in big bites." A technician picked up a large piece of beef brisket with a fork.
“Add a few sun-dried tomatoes and I guarantee you’ll open up new horizons.”
"Really?"
Huang Meiqi did not interrupt, but ate while thinking about how to apply new drying technology to develop products.
A technician from the canning factory slurped up his instant noodles and half-jokingly said, "Director Huang, what do you think of combining pre-prepared meals with instant noodles?"
"Pre-prepared meals and instant noodles?" Huang Meiqin shook her head. "What about the cost?"
"Cost..." The technician also thought: "The cost of our factory's small-sized meal packs is about 2.2 to 2.5 yuan. The cost of the Mo Nan instant noodle factory should not be high, right?"
The instant noodles they were eating at this time were produced by their own company.
To be precise, it is the "Jiayuan Instant Noodles" under the Mo'nan Branch, and the retail price of a bucket is about four dollars and fifty cents.
Another technician picked up the instant noodle bucket and said, "The factory price of this instant noodle is about RMB 3.5, and the cost is about RMB 2. If you add the cooking bag, it's not that you can't sell it, but the retail price has to be raised to more than RMB 8 to barely make a profit."
The technician who just proposed the combination of cooking bags and instant noodles also thought about some of the situations: "In fact, we can consider, for example, using Egyptian fish, which is very cheap now, to make meat patties, fish sausages, fish balls, etc., which will not increase the cost too much."
"Abin, you can consider using mushrooms. The factory next door has a very large output of morels. You can make morel cooking packs."
"Speaking of morels, our technology should be of great use in mushroom drying, right?"
"Of course. Our room temperature drying technology can almost 100% preserve the flavor of the ingredients. Mushrooms are more suitable for dehydration. I guess they will come to us for cooperation soon."
While eating supper, everyone discussed various application directions.
Both traditional dry foods and new dry foods are within the scope of discussion.
Some people even proposed some very strange and bizarre directions.
For example, the female technician who was responsible for recording experimental data proposed a more special direction, which was the application in hemodialysis.
Because her mother suffers from uremia, she has to go to the hospital for dialysis once a week, which brings great inconvenience and a huge burden to the patient's family doctor.
Huang Meiqi did not refute this research direction, but said that she would write a report to the scientific research department and ask them to conduct a feasibility study.
After all, to achieve dialysis, it is not as simple as pumping water from the human body, but to separate the harmful components in the blood. Water does not need to be separated in large quantities.
However, to selectively separate harmful components in the blood, specialized silicon carbide nanotubes are needed, and this may not necessarily work.
Among them, the small molecule harmful components and ionic harmful components in the dialysis process are indeed worth studying.
For example, uric acid, urea, and creatinine are all small molecules, and potassium ions and hydrogen ions are ions.
But silicon carbide nanotubes may not be able to separate large protein molecules.
Therefore, in the future, this research and development direction is estimated to have to be combined with other separation technologies before it can be applied to hemodialysis, thus completely realizing low-cost and convenient hemodialysis treatment.
But at least this is a good direction.
After all, considering the current silicon carbide nanotubes, their separation cost is very low. Huang Meiqi estimates that the scientific research department will be interested in this direction.
(End of this chapter)