Chapter 279 Development Purpose

Chapter 279 Development Purpose

Chapter 279 Development Purpose

The Daxin County factory of Hucheng Sugar Industry.

Although the factory purchases about 1100 tons of raw sugar every day, the factory director Tian Huiwen is not too happy. He is a person with a strong sense of crisis.

As today is New Year's Eve, the factory was closed for three days. However, as the factory director, he did not return to his hometown in Xiangxi, but brought his wife and children over.

Opposite the factory is the employee residential area built by the company. However, only 360 houses are currently available in this employee community, and the rest will have to wait until the second phase of development after the Spring Festival.

Tian Huiwen returned to his home in the staff community.

His wife Miao Cai'e had already prepared the meal.

"time to eat."

After washing his hands, he saw his son and daughter waiting for him at the dining table, so he smiled and said, "Come and eat!"

Chichi... opened a bottle of Hucheng Sugarcane Cola and everyone poured a glass. This cola was one of the products of their factory.

To be precise, it is a by-product.

Because the sugar liquid extracted from sugarcane contains a lot of natural flavor components of sugarcane, these flavor components are almost 99% retained in the raw sugar that is dehydrated on site.

After the factory brings back the raw sugar, most of the flavor components will be separated during the production of white sugar and rock sugar.

The sucrose separation process of the Hucheng factory is called the heat-free saturation separation method, which is to continuously dehydrate the raw sugar solution to concentrate the sucrose content of the solution to more than 67%. This concentration is the upper limit of the saturation of the sucrose solution at normal temperature and pressure. As long as this upper limit is reached, sucrose will precipitate in large quantities and settle as crystals.

However, at normal temperature and pressure, the flavor substances in the raw sugar solution will not precipitate, because the content ratio of these flavor substances is not high and it is difficult to reach the upper limit of saturated precipitation.

However, this process has a disadvantage, that is, the last 3% or so of sucrose will contain about 95% of flavor substances.

After discussing with the factory management, Tian Huiwen did not continue to re-concentrate this concentrated sugar rich in flavor substances. Instead, he used it as flavored syrup for the production of Hucheng Sugarcane Cola.

Sugarcane Cola is a trial product, so only the employees in their factory can get a taste test.

The sugarcane flavor of this cola is very obvious, and its texture and taste are more natural than aspartame or sugar-free cola, but its calories are not high because Hucheng Sugar Industry uses rubber grass inulin, which was recently produced on a small scale by the Mo Nan branch, as the core sweetener.

Inulin extracted from rubber grass is a natural sweetener, but humans cannot digest inulin because the human digestive system does not have a specific decomposition mechanism.

This makes cane cola a low-sugar beverage with a sucrose content of 5.5% per ml. The rest is inulin, which provides most of the sweetness. Sucrose, cane flavor substances and inulin create a relatively fresh taste without the strange smell and aftertaste of synthetic sweeteners.

After taking a sip of Coke, Tian Huiwen turned on the TV.

Miao Cai'e came over with a steamboat and said, "Honey, light the alcohol cube."

"Okay." Tian Huiwen took out a candle-like solid alcohol and put it into the alcohol stove and lit it.

The hot pot soup base, which had already been boiled, began to boil slightly again under the heating of the alcohol flame.

The son put down his Coke, picked up a hot pot meatball, and put it in his mouth impatiently: "Woo woo... hot... whoosh..."

"Why are you in such a hurry? Eat slowly. Eating something too hot is bad for your health." Tian Huiwen said a few words, picked up a piece of morel, and blew it: "Hoohoo..."

"Dad, I want to eat lobster." the daughter shouted.

"Okay, I'll boil it for you." Tian Huiwen picked up a piece of freshly peeled lobster meat, put it in the colander, and boiled it in the clear soup.

Miao Cai'e put some cut marbled beef into another colander and dipped it into the sour soup on the other side for more than ten seconds: "Try it. This sour soup is made by your company's Guizhou branch."

"Oh?" Tian Huiwen quickly ate a piece and nodded, "Not bad, it tastes very good, and it's comparable to the sour soup hotpot in your hometown."

"It's produced in my hometown." Miao Cai'e said with a smile, and then she took a sip of Coke: "Hic... This Coke is good, much more natural than other colas. When will it be on the market?"

"We are still adjusting the flavors. There are five types at the moment, and we need to select the best one." Tian Huiwen said as he picked up a Chinese spinach to add to the hot pot.

"How much do you plan to sell a bottle for?"

"Coke is not valuable. The key is the transportation problem."

"Doesn't your company have an airship?" Miao Cai'e boiled a piece of shrimp in sour soup for her daughter.

"Airships can indeed reduce a lot of transportation costs, but transportation also requires road distribution." Tian Huiwen is very clear that transportation is the core factor of beverage products.

Although transportation costs only account for 3% to 10% of the total cost, the low cost is actually achieved because many large beverage companies have built regional factories and controlled the transportation distance as much as possible to a radius of about 300 kilometers around the factory.

If the distance is too far, the cost will rise sharply.

Even with an airship, the distance can still only be controlled within 1000 kilometers.

Therefore, if Hucheng Sugar Industry's cola wants to defeat other competitors, it is not enough to rely solely on low sugar, health, natural taste and safety. It must also compete on cost-effectiveness and occupy the market through low prices.

To achieve low prices, we must create room for price reductions from costs in all aspects.

Essentially speaking.

Hucheng Sugar Industry has a cost advantage in raw materials, and the costs of electricity and water can also be reduced. In terms of transportation costs, as long as the road distance is controlled within 300 kilometers as much as possible, it can crush other beverage companies with low prices.

Of course, other beverage companies will not sit idly by. They will definitely cooperate with other companies to establish an industrial chain to counter Hailufeng Company.

In the core production area of ​​the factory, it is certain that it cannot beat Hailufeng Company. In the non-core production areas, a tug-of-war situation is expected to emerge.

For example, in Hucheng area, where Hucheng Sugar Industry is located, the cost of sugarcane cola is very low. A 300 ml plastic bottle of cola costs about 0.6 yuan. The local road transportation cost is also relatively low, with a wholesale price of 1 yuan and a retail price of 2 yuan.

The gross profit is 20 cents per bottle.

This is also the core secret of how large beverage companies can occupy the market, that is, low profits, which forces other competitors to have no way to enter this market, or to find this market difficult to operate.

Don't think that Hucheng Sugar Industry is deliberately cutting prices.

Because the factory wholesale price of the two major colas is almost this price.

If you want to compete with these beverage companies, you must lower the price and make the gross profit of a single bottle of Coke very low, otherwise it will be difficult to compete with other competitors.

In order to popularize this low price across the country, beverage factories must be opened across the country.

For example, Coca-Cola has 46 related factories in Greater China; PepsiCo and Combi Alliance own more than 70 factories.

In fact, Hailufeng currently has a large number of food-related factories. If the food factories of its cooperative enterprises are included, the total number can reach about 150.

However, many of these food factories are single-category factories, that is, factories that specialize in producing one or two products and do not have branch factories.

If Tian Huiwen wants to do something big, he must not rest on his laurels. He is very clear about the prospects of Hailufeng Company. On such a powerful platform, if he does not do something big, he feels sorry for himself and this platform.

Therefore, in addition to developing sugarcane cola, he is also thinking about other industries recently.

Suddenly he saw a block of solid alcohol beside the table and fell into deep thought.

"What's wrong?" Miao Cai'e saw her husband suddenly put down his chopsticks.

"Oh?" Tian Huiwen came back to his senses and shook his head with a smile: "Nothing, I just thought of something."

"It's about the factory again? You, the general manager and factory director, are really dedicated to your job." Miao Cai'e rolled his eyes at him.

Although his wife said so, he still laughed dryly: "Haha, the company has given me such good conditions, I won't be willing if I don't make some achievements!"

"Let's eat!" Miao Cai'e knew her husband's character and didn't say anything else.

Tian Huiwen was a little absent-minded. After finishing his meal, he sat on the sofa, holding the box of solid alcohol and thinking. He did not watch the Spring Festival Gala on TV.

Miao Cai'e and her daughter were still eating, while her son was playing games on his mobile phone after eating.

After thinking for a while, Tian Huiwen frowned, because he did not think that Hucheng Sugar Industry could find a point of entry into the alcohol industry.

Because Hailufeng Company has special regulations, that is, it does not produce and sell cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, and betel nut products, which are clearly listed as first-class carcinogens.

Due to this special restriction, Hucheng Sugar Industry cannot produce high value-added fermented wine, which cuts off a large application of the alcohol industry.

The remaining application directions of the alcohol industry are fuel, chemical auxiliary materials, cosmetic auxiliary materials, etc. In these application directions, domestically, white sugar fermentation alcohol is rarely used because the cost is too high. Instead, coal chemical industry is used to manufacture industrial ethanol, and the cost is about 3000 to 5000 yuan per ton.

If ethanol is produced from white sugar, even if the cost is 2000 yuan per ton of raw sugar, the cost of raw materials will be 4500 yuan, plus other costs, it will directly reach 6000 yuan per ton. This is definitely a dead end.

You know, the Mo Nan branch plans to use the inulin in rubber grass through multiple fermentation technology to transform the inulin into electricity, methane, alcohol and organic fertilizer.

That is because the Mo Nan Branch will be able to produce several million tons of inulin every year in the future, so it can engage in this special joint production.

White sugar is the main product of Hucheng Sugar Industry, and it certainly cannot be converted into alcohol, as doing so would result in a loss.

After a while, he took out his mobile phone and used AI to analyze the current situation to see if there was any solution to break the deadlock.

Soon he saw a general direction for exploitation.

Polylactic acid plastic (PLA).

This is a bioplastic that is completely biodegradable.

After reading the AI ​​analysis report, Tian Huiwen's eyes suddenly flashed: "Polylactic acid plastic, this thing has some potential."

Because there are already companies doing this abroad. Among them, America's company uses corn syrup to produce polylactic acid plastic, while Siam's company uses cane sugar. The processes are similar, and both use 1.6 tons of sugar to produce 1 ton of polylactic acid plastic.

After looking at the cost analysis, the cost abroad is about RMB 1.3 to 1.5 per ton of polylactic acid plastic.

Currently, the cost of plastics such as polyethylene is around 7000 to 8000 yuan per ton.

Using raw sugar purchased at a price of 2000 yuan per ton, the cost of one ton of polylactic acid plastic is about 7000 to 8000 yuan.

As long as the cost can be brought on par with traditional plastics, completely biodegradable polylactic acid plastic can basically be mass-produced.

Thinking of this, he picked up the phone and called Zhang Chengdong, the head of the scientific research department.

beep...

"Hello? Who is it?"

"Manager Zhang, I'm Tian Huiwen, the general manager of Hucheng Sugar Industry. We've had dinner together at the head office before."

"Oh, it's Mr. Tian."

"Happy New Year's Eve, Manager Zhang."

"Have fun with Mr. Tian."

"This time I'm calling mainly to ask Manager Zhang something."

"Please say."

"We are planning to develop the polylactic acid plastics industry. I wonder if the research department has any related projects?"

"Polylactic acid plastic? Let me check. Wait a moment."

"It's okay, take your time."

After a while.

"Hey, Mr. Tian, ​​the polylactic acid plastic you mentioned does have a related project, but it's not a research project at the headquarters, but a project at the Mo Nan branch. They are studying the use of inulin to produce lactic acid."

"I see. I wonder how their progress is?"

"The technical verification has been almost completed. After all, their inulin fermentation technology is very mature. Currently, they can produce 1.43 ton of PLA with 1 tons of inulin."

Tian Huiwen was very surprised: "So high? I saw that only 1.6 tons of sugar can be converted into 1 ton of PLA abroad."

"Haha, you have to know what our company relies on. Biotechnology is our specialty, and Mo Nan's scientific research strength in biological breeding is not much worse than that of the headquarters."

“I wonder what the conversion efficiency will be after switching to sucrose?”

"It shouldn't be too high, because the lactic acid bacteria they have are specially cultivated for decomposing inulin. This type of bacteria may not have a very good conversion efficiency for sucrose."

"Is that so? It seems we can only ask the headquarters for technical support."

"Yes, this project is very good. The domestic sugar production capacity will definitely explode in the future. At that time, so much sugar will definitely need a consumption direction. Degradable plastics are a better consumption direction."

"Thank you, Manager Zhang, for your answer."

"You are welcome."

"I will visit Manager Zhang at the headquarters after the Spring Festival. I won't bother you now."

"OK, bye."

After hanging up the phone, Tian Huiwen's mood suddenly improved. He did not ask for the same high conversion efficiency as the Mo Nan branch. As long as he could convert 1.6 tons of sugar into 1 ton of PLA, the cost would basically be on par with that of ordinary plastics.

Inulin produced by the Mo Nan Branch is a by-product of rubber production, while white sugar produced by Hucheng Sugar Industry is its core product. The difficulty of expanding production capacity of the two is different.

To expand the inulin production capacity, it is necessary to expand the rubber production capacity, which means that the inulin polylactic acid plastic of the Mo Nan Branch can only be a by-product and cannot become the main product.

However, it is very easy to expand sugar production capacity.

Now, as long as we can develop large-scale uses for white sugar in China, we can produce not only millions of tons of sugar, but even tens of millions of tons of sugar.

This is the same as the application of soybean oil and soy protein.

As long as you can find an application direction, you don’t have to worry about the raw materials.

Compared with traditional plastics that are difficult to degrade, polylactic acid plastic can be completely degraded and the degradation speed is very fast. This is simply a derivative industry tailor-made for white sugar.

After all, the fact that it can be completely degraded quickly means that the items produced from this material will have a very short service life. It will not be the case that a plastic bag will be used for several years. This will increase the customer repurchase rate and keep the entire industry in a state of stable production at all times.

Sugar is a renewable resource. Unlike oil, natural gas and coal, it is difficult to regenerate quickly after use. Neither the Western biological generation theory nor Lucia's underground inorganic generation theory can make oil, natural gas and coal regenerate quickly.

The underground oil, natural gas and coal will definitely be exhausted. After all, the scale of human use is too large. Even if they are renewable, the speed of their generation will certainly not match the speed of human consumption.

You should know that the exploitation depth of many domestic oil fields has generally exceeded 5,000 meters, and there are even oil and gas fields at a depth of 10,000 meters underground.

This makes mining costs increasingly higher and mining more and more difficult. Instead of exploiting the non-renewable resources underground, it is better to develop alternatives such as biofuels, bioplastics, and natural rubber.

The current domestic biodiesel production cost is generally lower than that of ordinary diesel.

Although polylactic acid plastic has defects and cannot replace all types of plastics, it can at least replace a large part of disposable plastic products, which are also the main source of microplastic pollution.

In fact, microplastic pollution in China is not serious.

Because the domestic waste recycling industry is relatively comprehensive, plastic products that can be recycled and reused have been recycled, while many of the disposable plastic products that cannot be recycled are taken away with other garbage to waste incineration power plants to be burned to generate electricity.

Microplastic pollution abroad is really serious.

Especially after the country banned the import of foreign garbage, a lot of garbage in Europe and the United States has piled up into mountains. Previously they could be exported, but now they can only be digested by themselves, or secretly transported to some backward areas and oceans for dumping.

Tian Huiwen then thought of the agricultural mulch problem that was giving the company a headache. Traditional plastic mulch would leave microplastics in the soil after use. Therefore, for safety reasons, the company did not allow its own farms and cooperative growers to use traditional mulch.

This demand can be barely met through other means south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River.

However, when they arrived in the North China Plain, Northeast China, and Northwest China, they encountered tremendous troubles and resistance.

If polylactic acid plastic film can be fully used as agricultural mulch, many problems can be avoided.

As for the plastic film of the plastic greenhouse, it can actually be replaced by another thing produced by Hailufeng Company, which is a single-layer film woven from silicon carbide nanotubes. This thing is light-transmitting and has a service life of about 20 to 30 years.

Coupled with the special hollow nanostructure, it has special thermal insulation properties. Of course, in order to avoid the good thermal conductivity of silicon carbide nanotubes and conduct the heat inside the greenhouse out, a layer of thermal insulation coating must be applied inside.

Although silicon carbide nanotubes are relatively expensive, they can be woven into a single-layer film using relatively little material, and their long service life can offset the initial one-time investment cost.

(End of this chapter)