Chapter 285 Industrial Revolution

Chapter 285 Industrial Revolution

Chapter 285 Industrial Revolution
It is March when the ice and snow are melting in the North China Plain.

On the coast near Shengli Oilfield, an abandoned refinery has been transformed into a very large seawater desalination plant after several months of transformation. The plant has a designed production capacity of 100 billion cubic meters of fresh water per year.

However, such a huge production capacity will naturally not be started all at once. After all, the local area cannot digest hundreds of billions of cubic meters of fresh water every year.

At this moment, a heated debate was taking place in an office of the factory.

An old professor wearing glasses frowned and said, "Old Huang, I oppose your plan. If you rashly change the groundwater reserves, it may cause unpredictable consequences."

Professor Huang, who looked confident, retorted, "Haha, Lao Lin, do you know how much your plan of using above-ground pipelines to transport water will cost? Besides, the land acquisition and construction along the route of laying the pipeline will take at least a dozen years. It's better not to build it."

"But my plan is at least safe." Professor Lin did not think there was anything wrong with his plan.

"Safe? Then what's unsafe about my plan?" Professor Huang stood up directly.

Zhang Lingjun, who was in charge of convening this technical demonstration meeting, coughed lightly a few times: "Ahem, both of you should pay attention to the meeting discipline."

Professor Lin said, "Team Leader Zhang, don't listen to Old Huang's nonsense. His karez plan is totally unrealistic. The underground structure is not static, but will change over time. And it is very difficult to repair deep underground. Who will be responsible if something goes wrong?"

"I am responsible for my plan." Professor Huang retorted firmly.

Professor Lin pushed up his glasses and sneered, "Haha, you are responsible? What are you responsible for? Will you be shot? Or will you be taken to refine oil and make soap?"

The two of them had already gotten really angry during the debate.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Lingjun also frowned. He reprimanded seriously: "You two, today we are talking about science and technology, not buying vegetables in the market. Please use science to explain the situation."

Faced with the rebuke from Leader Zhang, the two men and their team members suddenly became quiet.

After a while, Professor Lin was the first to speak: "Sorry, I was too emotional just now."

"I was wrong too." Professor Huang also took the opportunity to back off.

At this time, Zhang Lingjun looked at Yang Qingtian, the general manager of Hailufeng Water Company, a subsidiary of Hailufeng Company and the venue provider: "Mr. Yang, what do you think?"

Yang Qingtian, who had been an unknown figure, raised his head with a smile and said, "What the professors said makes sense. The main problem with Professor Lin's team's plan is that the project is difficult, the investment cost is high, and the construction period is long. The main problem with Professor Huang's team's plan is that the geology is unstable, the ecological risk is high, and the maintenance is difficult."

"Mr. Yang's summary is very accurate. I wonder what insights Mr. Yang has?" Zhang Lingjun asked with a smile.

Yang Qingtian smiled and replied, "I don't deserve your advice, but our boss has some ideas."

Seeing Yang Qingtian carrying Jiang Miao out, Professor Lin, Professor Huang and others who were about to say something instantly suppressed their thoughts and waited for what would happen next.

Zhang Lingjun was secretly relieved to see that the experts and scholars had finally quieted down. He then said flatteringly, "Since this is Academician Jiang's idea, I am also very interested. Please describe it to us, Mr. Yang!"

"No problem." Yang Qingtian stood up.

His assistant quickly played the PPT file that had been prepared in advance, and a pattern instantly appeared on the projection screen in the conference room.

Yang Qingtian stood up and took out a white foam brick: "This is our company's new product, silicon foam brick."

"Silicon foam bricks?"

"What's the use of this thing?"

The others in the meeting room discussed in low voices.

Yang Qingtian handed the silicon foam brick to Zhang Lingjun on his left, and then explained: "This is a new material made by modifying silk protein."

The production process of this foam brick is similar to that of diatomaceous earth threads. To be precise, the production processes of the two are similar.

The process of silicon foam bricks is to make soy protein in the stage of fully emulsifying the soy protein to turn it into a foam-like state, and then add diatomaceous earth and other chemical adjuvants for modification.

Through this process modification, the foam bricks produced are very light, but the overall strength is very high and the volume is very large.

Its unit density is about 2.1 times heavier than air.

The density of near-ground air at normal temperature and pressure is about 1.2 kilograms per cubic meter, while the density of this silicon foam brick is 2.52 kilograms per cubic meter.

Every ton of silicon filament material can produce approximately 396 cubic meters of foam bricks.

Looking at the light silicone foam brick in his hand, Zhang Lingjun turned around and asked, "Boss Yang, can I break it open?"

Yang Qingtian's face changed, and he quickly reminded: "Team Leader Zhang, you need to wear stab-proof gloves, because this material is very thin, if you use too much force, it will pierce into the flesh."

"Uh..." Zhang Lingjun also quickly put the things on the table.

“Although the filaments of this material do not reach the nanometer level, they are still at the micrometer level. Some cutting locations cannot be touched casually as they can easily pierce the body.” Yang Qingtian explained again.

Others also carefully took the material, and their first feeling when they handled it was that it was light and fluffy.

After a while, a staff member came over with a few sets of special stab-proof gloves.

After putting on gloves, Zhang Lingjun tried to break the foam brick. However, he tried with all his strength, his face turned red, but he still failed to break the foam brick.

Others also tried, but were unable to break it.

Zhang Lingjun took off his gloves and asked in confusion: "Boss Yang, your company's material is very good, but what does it have to do with our topic?"

"Team Leader Zhang, I will now describe our boss's idea to everyone." The foam brick returned to Yang Qingtian's hand again, and he said with a smile:

"Everyone has a preliminary understanding of the properties of this material, but you may not know the production cost of this material. At present, the price of this foam brick is about 5 yuan per ton, which is about 396 cubic meters per ton."

"so cheap?"

“Is that about 135 yuan per cubic meter?”

“Is this thing intended to replace reinforced concrete?”

"It's not impossible. After all, the strength is very high. I just don't know how long the service life is."

Yang Qingtian raised his lips slightly: "I think everyone has guessed part of it. That's right, this material can replace reinforced concrete. Please see..."

The assistant understood and started playing the PPT content.

"Since silicon foam bricks are very light and can be formed in one piece in the factory, we can directly produce large components, then use large airships to lift them to the construction site and install them directly. The outdoor service life of this material is about 30 to 40 years."

Looking at the simulation animation on the PPT, everyone was stunned by the scene where the entire arch bridge structure was lifted to the construction site by an airship and then directly installed.

Gulu! Professor Lin pushed his glasses and said, "Mr. Yang, are you planning to build an overhead water bridge?"

Yang Qingtian nodded: "That's right, this is a relatively easy solution at present. We plan to build a water tower with an altitude of no less than 60 meters in the coastal area, and then transport water to the inland areas through the drop. The altitude of the entire North China Plain is generally around 20 to 50 meters, and the drop can be used to achieve natural water transportation."

Many people in Professor Lin's team became active. In fact, they supported the water pipeline project, but their project plan was to use a step-by-step pressurization method to transport fresh water inland.

Yang Qingtian also mentioned the problems with this plan, which is that the project cost is high, the transportation cost is high, and the construction period is long.

The proposal developed by Yang Qingtian on behalf of Hailufeng Company is an improved version of the proposal of Professor Lin's team.

After all, the cost of reinforced concrete is about 800 to 1200 yuan per cubic meter, while the cost of silicone foam is about 135 yuan per cubic meter.

The cost difference between the two is about 6 to 9 times.

The cost of reinforced concrete usually accounts for about 50% to 70% of this type of special project.

In other words, if the reinforced concrete material is replaced with silicon foam material, the overall cost can be reduced to about 40% to 60% of the original. And because the silicon foam material can be formed in one piece, it can reduce a lot of labor costs and maintenance costs.

Overall, the project cost can be reduced by almost half.

Of course, cost reduction is a small matter. The key is that the construction speed is very fast.

According to the content demonstrated in the PPT, as long as the foundation is laid in advance, the remaining main body of the bridge can be directly mass-produced in the factory and then transported by airship. It is not impossible to lift a one-kilometer-long bridge at a time.

And because silicone foam material is very light and at the same time very strong, the span of bridges made of this material can be very large, which further reduces the amount of reinforced concrete used in the foundation.

Components produced from silicone foam materials do not need to consider the heat release of concrete, as well as the problems of thermal expansion and contraction. Basically, the next step of engineering transformation can be carried out on the same day that the laying is completed.

This has another benefit for areas where water resources are scarce, which is that it reduces the water used for maintenance and mixing concrete.

A researcher said slowly: "We can adopt high-level water delivery from the beginning and let the water flow naturally through gravity drop, which can indeed reduce some of the costs in the delivery process."

Another round-faced researcher who specializes in water delivery cost research also said, "Raising water from an altitude of 60 meters requires about 0.15 degrees of electricity per cubic meter. Considering the current electricity price, the electricity cost for water delivery is about 0.06 yuan per cubic meter. 100 billion cubic meters means 6 million yuan in electricity costs, which is acceptable."

“It’s certainly something we can consider.”

Professor Huang's team no longer mentioned the groundwater water transfer plan, but instead joined the discussion on the water transfer bridge plan.

In addition, the North China Plain Water Transfer Seminar is under discussion.

China Railway Engineering Group, which is responsible for high-speed railway construction, was also in a meeting at this time.

Compared with the North China Plain Water Transfer Project which has not even started yet, China Railway Engineering Group has already been secretly conducting experiments.

After the laboratory test data came out, they quickly convened a management meeting.

Lei Wu, the new chairman of China Railway Engineering Group, said ambitiously: "Everyone has seen it, now let's announce our opinions."

A vice president in charge of cost management said: "The overall operation of domestic high-speed rail is currently in a loss-making state. Although some hot lines in the east can barely make a profit, high-speed rail operations in remote areas such as the northwest, southwest, and northeast are generally in a loss-making state. Although the economy has eased this year, it does not mean that we can sit back and relax."

"What Vice President Li said makes sense. Generally speaking, the domestic high-speed rail lines that can make profits have been built almost completely. Now there are only a lot of tough nuts to crack. We can't continue to follow the old model." Another vice president's face was full of worry.

"I think it is necessary to use silicone foam materials, which can not only reduce costs but also increase the enthusiasm of the National Railway Group to continue investing."

"I agree."

"I think so."

Obviously they knew that domestic railway construction had entered its later stages.

This is also a process that must be experienced after large-scale infrastructure construction.

Railway construction in many areas has gradually reached saturation. Under this circumstance, the scale of railway-related project construction will decline year by year, and then maintain a relatively low renewal scale, or even stop.

This situation can sometimes have a fatal impact on railway-related industries.

For example, why China's high-speed rail technology can catch up is because of the support of the huge domestic market.

The reason why America has not developed high-speed rail-related industries is that their country has passed the era of large-scale infrastructure, and railway construction has long been saturated. In addition, the states are arguing with each other, and private railway operators are unwilling to update. Without internal demand, the high-speed rail industry naturally cannot develop.

China is now facing this situation.

Once we enter the post-large-scale infrastructure era, with the decrease in the number of newly started high-speed rail lines, it is obviously impossible to maintain the entire industrial chain simply by relying on the natural renewal of old railways.

As for exporting high-speed rail, the idea is very good, but the reality is very bleak.

This kind of infrastructure construction project, which takes several years, involves too much risk. Once unrest occurs in the region or some shameless forces emerge, the result will be a complete loss of all the money.

For example, if you go to Tianzhu to invest in high-speed rail, you will definitely not receive any money from such a region.

However, many places are extremely poor and lack talent, so they cannot afford high-speed rail.

In recent years, China has only built a few high-speed rail lines in the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, and there has been little gain in other regions.

The country is unable to expand its external market, and the internal market is shrinking. This has led many railway construction practitioners to be generally pessimistic about the future.

Lei Wu, who was appointed to the position in a time of crisis, naturally wanted to change this predicament, but after more than a year in office, he still could not change the overall downward trend of railway investment.

It was not until November last year that Hailufeng Company's laboratory developed a new material. After they obtained samples from the laboratory through some connections, they have been studying how to use this material.

This material has shown excellent properties in various laboratory tests.

Although the service life is only 30 to 40 years, this is when it is completely exposed to the outdoors. If a layer of cement mortar or asphalt sand is applied on the outside, it can effectively isolate the air and light, and the service life can be extended to about 50 to 60 years.

After about 50 years, you can actually just replace the parts with new ones.

Therefore, China Railway Engineering Group quickly convened a senior management meeting with the aim of promoting the application of silicone foam materials in the construction field as soon as possible.

If the construction cost can be saved by half, the overall investment can be reduced a lot, shortening the payback period of the National Railway Group.

Of course, this matter is not just about China Railway Engineering Group. The China Railway Corporation has also held several executive meetings and technical seminars recently.

However, what the National Railway Corporation is discussing is not the use of new building materials, but the plan to use new materials developed by the Minqin Group to build new trains.

Because their team of engineers has conducted a careful analysis and found that if new materials are used to manufacture trains, the overall weight of the trains can be reduced by about 35%.

Reducing the overall weight of the train can increase the payload on the one hand and reduce energy consumption on the other.

In addition, the electricity cost of high-speed rail lines has dropped a lot. After the cost reduction in all aspects, the added cost accounts for a considerable share.

After a series of analyses, the management of the China Railway Corporation has realized that if new materials are used in railway construction and trains are also made of new materials, and if electricity costs are reduced, the overall operating costs of high-speed railways can be reduced by about 20%.

This year, the China Railway Corporation's overall revenue was 1.36 trillion yuan, and it barely made a profit of 58 billion yuan. This shows that the net profit of the entire railway system is really too low.

If the high-speed rail operating costs can be reduced by 20%, the National Railway Group can make a profit of at least 2000 billion while maintaining the current ticket prices.

As long as it can continue to make profits, the National Railway Group will have the capital to invest in new railways and upgrade old railways, allowing the entire high-speed railway industry chain to barely survive.

Otherwise, given the current profit situation, the money available for investment in new railways will only become less and less in the future.

This reduction in operating costs can also turn some railway lines that are in a state of slight loss into profitable lines.

In addition, the National Railway Group is also considering using Minqin Group's new solar photovoltaic panels to cover the entire railway line. After all, railways are not like roads. For fixed-line railways, autonomous driving is already very developed, and there is little need to rely on the naked eye to observe the situation ahead.

If all railway lines can be covered with solar photovoltaic panels, then during the operation of the high-speed railway, not only can the electricity be self-sufficient, but the electricity can also be sold to the outside, further improving the overall profitability.

Of course, as a state-owned enterprise, even if the China Railway Corporation can achieve good profits, the authorities will adopt the method of lowering ticket prices to keep its overall profits within a relatively reasonable range.

The impact of new materials has begun to spread to the entire domestic industrial chain.

Dozens of core industries, including high-speed rail, engineering, bridges, automobiles, shipbuilding, passenger aircraft, drones, airships, containers, aerospace, water purification, pollution treatment, electricity, photovoltaics, wind power, energy storage, fuel, textiles, semiconductors, etc., have begun comprehensive upgrading.

This change has evolved into an industrial revolution.

Moreover, this industrial revolution is spreading very rapidly, mainly because the development of AI and information technology has made the implementation of many technologies more convenient.

However, this industrial revolution is currently limited to China. Although foreign countries are more or less aware of the existence of these new materials, it is difficult for foreign companies to replicate them because Hailufeng Company does not allow the export of technology and related raw materials and products.

(End of this chapter)