Chapter 249 Cost Issues


Chapter 249 Cost Issues

Outside the window, the northwest wind is cold.

Even if the surrounding area of ​​Minqin County has been transformed into a continuous soybean farm, the sand and dust from more distant areas are still being brought by the strong northwest wind.

"…" Jiang Miao listened to Zhang Shuli's report. "…The above are the research results of our laboratory." Zhang Shuli's face was filled with excitement and a hint of nervousness.

Jiang Miao put down the report in his hand and said with a smile: "Thank you, Dr. Zhang and the researchers from 511 Laboratory, the rewards are based on the company's regulations."

"Thank you, boss." Zhang Shuli's heart suddenly pounced on his mind. Plop up.

Although this research is derived from silicon carbide nanotubes, it is undeniable that Zhang Shuli's team did play a huge role in it, so their team will obtain the technology For related products, 5% gross profit is used as a patent incentive.

Don't underestimate the gross profit of 5%. If this thing is produced on a large scale, the gross profit generated every year will not be a small amount.

Many people subconsciously believe that the first application direction of this thing must be seawater desalination.

Seawater desalination is indeed the first application direction to be put into use soon.

But after reading all the reports from 511 Laboratory, Jiang Miao quickly discovered the second application direction, and it is a very important application direction, and it can even be compared with seawater desalination.

Jiang Miao ordered: "Dr. Zhang, after you go back, go to other laboratories to borrow equipment, and say I approved it, I will think about it..."

After a pause, he Then he said, "The 506 Laboratory has several sets of high-power vacuum equipment, so I borrow their equipment. I want to do an experiment, and you can also prepare a vacuum evaporator."

"Okay." Zhang Shu Li has guessed what Jiang Miao is going to do, which is to verify the efficiency of pumping water under different vacuum degrees.

The next afternoon.

After coordinating the work of equipment borrowing, Zhang Shuli called Jiang Miao.

When Jiang Miao arrived, the test work was already underway.

Under the high vacuum, the sewage in the glass sewage tank dropped at a speed visible to the naked eye. In less than 3 minutes, one cubic meter of sewage was drained. "Continue." Jiang Miao watched them continue to do the experiment.

Zhang Shuli and others also began to increase the vacuum level to increase the negative pressure on one side.

As the negative pressure continues to increase, the efficiency of the nanoevaporator to pump water is getting higher and higher.

However, the good times did not last long. As the negative pressure increased, harmful components in the sewage also entered the water purification tank, and some large particulate pollutants also blocked the silicon carbide nanotubes bit by bit.

Everyone had expected this.

Readjust the experimental plan and be busy until around 11:30 pm.

They finally found the best efficiency. Under specific negative pressure, the water purification efficiency of silicon carbide nanotubes has achieved a relatively good cost-effectiveness. It can produce 87 cubic meters of ultra-pure water per kilowatt-hour of electricity, which is the previous one. More than twice.

But Jiang Miao did not ask Zhang Shuli's team to stop research, and the experiments were needed to continue.

However, the experimental direction is no longer the efficiency of water purification extraction, but silicon carbide nanotubes of different lengths, which require energy to be consumed for each cubic meter of ultra-purified water.

Five days of experiment.

Zhang Shuli's team also understood Jiang Miao's thoughts at this time.

Since the length of silicon carbide nanotubes is difficult to exceed 1 meter, Zhang Shuli's team adopted welding method to weld a sealed metal ring on the silicon carbide nanotube bundle so that the two strands of silicon carbide nanotubes can be connected together.

Using this method, they continue to extend the silicon carbide nanotubes.

In five days, the silicon carbide nanotubes were extended to 150 meters.

The experiment was very successful.

Even if it is extended by 150 meters, the silicon carbide nanotubes can still absorb pure water from the sewage tank to the other end without any effort.

However, during the experiment, they also found problems.

That is, at the beginning, vertical arrangement should be adopted so that the water vapor at room temperature can float up, but the vertical length should not be too long. Once it exceeds about 4.5 meters, the water vapor will be easily affected by the gravity of the earth. , it cannot continue to float, thus condensed inside the pipe at this height.

So after the first section of the pipeline exceeds 3 meters, it must be turned and changed to parallel horizontal planes or obliquely upwards, which can allow the room temperature water vapor inside the pipeline to flow rapidly.

The other problem is the temperature problem.

At the beginning, they were doing experiments inside the laboratory, and naturally they did not find any temperature problems. Until the length exceeded the space inside the laboratory, problems arose when they were taken outdoors for the experiment.

It was early November in Minqin County at this time.

The temperature is still more than ten degrees during the day, but it is around zero degrees at night.

The room temperature water vapor inside the silicon carbide nanotube will suddenly turn into liquid near zero degrees Celsius. The consequences of this mutation are very serious. The viscous liquid water causes the pipe to be blocked and the pure water is extracted. The efficiency has dropped to about one thousandth of the previous one.

In further experiments, once the ambient temperature of the silicon carbide nanotube is lower than minus 23.6 degrees Celsius, it will quickly condense from the water vapor state into solid ice, directly turning the silicon carbide nanotube inside the silicon carbide nanotube. Blocked.

In other words, silicon carbide nanotubes cannot be used in environments below zero degrees Celsius, otherwise the efficiency will drop sharply and even shut down directly.

But this experiment was also very successful.

The reason is that they verified the idea of ​​long-distance and low-cost water transfer through experiments. Since the 150-meter pipeline does not require too much extra work, it can achieve the extraction and transportation of ultra-pure water, then the following will be It is possible to consider continuously extending the pipeline and experiment with low-cost water transfer from coastal to inland.

Especially, water transfer from low-altitude coastal areas to high-altitude areas, for such silicon carbide nanotubes in the form of water vapor, the energy consumption is actually similar to that in plain areas. .

Zhang Shuli's team has tested increasing the inclination angle of the pipeline. As long as the inclination angle does not exceed 30 degrees, it will not affect the efficiency of extraction and water transfer.

After all, water vapor will automatically float to high altitudes, and a certain inclination can be used to offset the gravity of the earth by using the buoyancy of the water vapor itself. On this nanoscale, this offset is even more significant.

As for the problem of low-temperature condensation and freezing, it is actually irrelevant in the northern region. After all, agricultural production in the north is concentrated in spring, summer and autumn. In winter, there is not much water use except greenhouses and agricultural factories.

You can fully extract and transport pure water in spring, summer and autumn, stop work and repair in winter, or directly bury the pipeline deep underground and add an insulation layer.

Generally, the burial depth is greater than 3 meters, which can basically ensure that the temperature inside the pipeline is higher than zero degrees Celsius all year round.

According to the laboratory results, the current daily water transfer efficiency of the pipeline is multiplied by 1914 in the cross-sectional area of ​​the pipeline, that is, the pipeline cross-sectional area is 1914 cubic meters per square meter, and water can be transported every year 698,610 cubic meter.

A pipeline with an internal diameter of 10 meters can transport 54.93 million cubic meters of ultra-pure water every year.

However, Jiang Miao also knows that if this technology is implemented, pipeline cost is a very critical issue.

The current manufacturing cost of this type of silicon carbide nanotube is estimated to be about 110,000 per ton, with a density of 1.8 grams per cubic centimeter.

About one-third of the pumping water purification pipes are silicon carbide nanotubes and two-thirds are epoxy resin.

The pipe with a cross-sectional area of ​​one square meter requires 0.79 tons of epoxy resin and 0.59 tons of special silicon carbide nanometers. The total cost is about every meter. 50,000 yuan rice.

Suppose now it is necessary to build a 10-meter-diameter water supply pipeline from the coast of the Bohai Sea to the source of the upper reaches of the Laoha River, with a total length of about 350 kilometers.

The investment cost of pipelines alone is 1.37 trillion yuan, which is expected to be used for about 40 years, with an annual depreciation cost of at least 34.25 billion yuan. However, with so much investment, only 54.93 million cubic meters of ultra-purified water are needed for each cubic meter of ultra-purified water. Depreciation fee of 623 yuan.

Obviously this is not a good investment.

But this is not without solutions.

That is to adopt the stepped reservoir and the height difference natural water transfer mode.

For example, in coastal areas, find mountains with suitable heights, transport water to high places of the mountain, use drops and terrain to allow water to flow northward, and use surrounding rivers and reservoirs to continuously transport water to the northward. .

Taking the Laoha River project envisioned by Jiang Miao as an example, you can build a water supply pipeline along the coast near Shanhaiguan, and come to Zushan in the northwest direction of Shanhaiguan. Use the Qinglong River channel to build a stepped reservoir and transfer water to the north. Among them, Zushan section is probably only A 5-kilometer water supply pipeline is needed to be built.

To Sanshijiazi Town at the source of Qinglong River, cross the mountains to the northwest, and build a 5-kilometer water supply pipeline to reach Huangtuliangzi Town at the source of the upper reaches of Laoha River. In this way, only about 10 kilometers of water supply pipelines are needed to build on the entire line, plus the low-cost pumping station for each step reservoir.

But this cost is still very high.

If you really want to use it on long-distance and low-cost water transport, you can only expect that the cost of special water transport pipelines can be reduced after the process is mature and improved, otherwise the long-distance water transport will definitely not be able to play.

Of course, this is not really impossible.

For example, by digging tunnels, replacing special conveying pipelines, and step-by-step reservoirs to lift water upwards.

Silicon carbide nanotubes only need to continuously provide fresh water along the coast, and to build a pump pipe of dozens of meters in the stepped reservoir.

The use of silicon carbide nanopipes will drop to about a few hundred meters. The investment cost per meter of pumping pipe with a diameter of 10 meters is about 3.925 million yuan. Large-scale production can also reduce the investment cost of a meter. .

But the infrastructure investment has been raised.

Transportation tunnels and step reservoirs, these investments require about tens of billions.

If 100 such pipelines are arranged, 5.4 billion cubic meters of water will be transported annually, and according to the most economical plan, the investment of the entire project will be about 200 billion yuan. The project is expected to operate efficiently for 40 years, with an annual depreciation fee of 5 billion yuan. , the income is 5.4 billion cubic meters of fresh water, and the average investment cost per cubic meter of fresh water is 0.925 yuan.

No mistakes, one poem, one post, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one read!

It is obviously still high.

Unless the cost of special water pipelines drops to about one-third of the original, the investment cost per cubic meter of fresh water will drop to 0.39 yuan.

Jiang Miao was not too disappointed with this situation. After all, the food had to be eaten at a bite. He instructed Zhang Shuli's team: "On the one hand, the next task of your team is to cooperate with the company to carry out this product. Industrial mass production."

"No problem, boss." Zhang Shuli was like a chicken pecking at rice. "Another task is to find ways to reduce the production costs of silicon carbide nanotubes and special water transport pipelines, and cooperate with the production department when it is also necessary."

"Yes." >


Hailufeng Company has a special technical industrialization management department, namely the Technology Application Department.

In the past few days, the people from the Technology Application Department have taken action. On the one hand, they are organizing relevant researchers to study high-efficiency and low-cost mass production processes; on the other hand, they are asking the Affairs Department to arrange personnel as soon as possible. , set up a brand new business unit to lead the in-depth development and commercial operation of the project.

At this time, the manager of this department, Wang Anguo and deputy manager Song Xiaojie were also here.

Wang Anguo, who is also a technical research and development background, but has been engaged in industrial mass production management for a long time, has more experience in technical mass production than a simple scientific research team. He has seen special silicon carbide in the past few days Nanotube technology.

"Boss, this is a preliminary improvement plan, please check it out."

Jiang Miao looked and asked, "You are really efficient. You came up with three improvement plans in less than three days."

" He has specialized in his profession, and Dr. Zhang has never led the professional production of professional technology. Planning and process improvement." Wang Anguo said with a smile: "The first improvement solution is the simplest and easiest to achieve. Silicon carbide nanopipes only account for about 30% of the water supply pipelines, and the rest 70% of the epoxy resin is epoxy resin, but epoxy resin does not necessarily need to be completely filled with the inside of the pipe. Our engineers plan to use foam foam as the middle filling material, which can not only insulate and support the effect, but also reduce the overall effect. Weight and cost.”

Jiang Miao has seen the estimated parameters of this improvement plan; reduce the weight by 32%, and reduce the cost by about 8,000 yuan per cubic meter. "The second solution is the shell and sealing alloy ring. The original process is naturally harmless in the laboratory, but this industrial mass production is obviously not suitable." Wang Anguo continued to add Said:

"So we used the company's new material, diatom bean silk, which can be formed in one piece. After adding the sealing ring, it fully meets the requirements. It is expected to reduce the overall weight by another 35%, and the cost per cubic meter will be reduced by another 7,000 yuan." "For the third improvement, Dr. Zhang's team used a direct sintering and deposition process before, and then used finer silicon carbide nanotubes to drill through it little by little. This process is too complicated and the yield rate is too low. We plan to use multiple sintering, each time only one-eighth of the inner wall, and sintering eight times in a row. "

Jiang Miao did not deny this plan, because the Technology Application Department has conducted supercomputing simulation calculations. The conclusion is that this inner wall structure does not affect the evaporation of water molecules at room temperature.

If the third solution is adopted, it is expected that the cost per ton of special silicon carbide nanotubes will drop from 110,000 yuan to about 67,000 yuan.

This will reduce the cost of special water pipelines per cubic meter by 13,000 yuan. Together with the previous two improvement plans, a total of 28,000 yuan can be reduced, and the total cost will be reduced to 22,000 yuan per cubic meter.

Although it has not reached one-third of the ideal state, there is still a lot of room for decline to continue to improve in the later stage.

For example, the cost of bean shreds decreases, energy consumption decreases, and water use decreases, these costs will affect the production costs of downstream products.

"Your Technology Application Department arranges the implementation of the technology as soon as possible."

Wang Anguo replied seriously: "Leave it to us, we will definitely live up to the boss's trust."


>"Well, thank you for your hard work." Jiang Miao looked at the watch and said goodbye to everyone because he was going to rush to the capital.

It's November 7th now.

The results of this year's academician election will be officially announced in Beijing in two weeks.

It was not only Jiang Miao who won the academician of the Academy of Engineering, but also Lin Shuya who also won the academician of the Academy of Engineering.

The sponge battery technology, which is mainly Shuya's name, triggered domestic industrial transformation, and it was the first half of the year. Therefore, after internal discussions by the selection committee, Lin Shu was added in June in June. Ya's name.

Jiang Miao had known the results of the selection for a long time.

Since the couple cannot take a plane, and considering that the expiration has passed, it is easy for people to understand the time, the two have passed at different times in advance.

Shuya had already taken the high-speed train the night before yesterday. Under the secret escort of the security team, she went to the capital in a low-key manner.

He stayed at Minqin for an additional week mainly to see the research results of special silicon carbide nanotubes and discuss some subsequent arrangements with the Technology Application Department.

The time is almost over now, so I rushed to the high-speed rail station in Liangzhou City.

Jiang Miao's departure did not affect the research work of Wang Anguo, Zhang Shuli and others.

Using silicon carbide nanotubes as cutting lines, they cut special pipes into slices, each piece with a thickness of 2 cm, and each piece can be cut into 50 pieces per meter, and each piece can be used as an independent water purifier.

The pipe is then made using other materials, and only one water purifier is needed to be installed on the pipe head.

In the sewage treatment plant in Minqin County.

In a temporary renovated container, a water purifier of an equipment is close to the sewage pool. After the initial sewage is pasted on the water purifier on the surface, the negative pressure equipment is started and the constant temperature is continuous. The water vapor is pumped up by the water purifier, and the room temperature water vapor coming out on the other side quickly condenses into water droplets.

These water droplets are deposited at the bottom, and the four-sided pumps on the bottom quickly pull the pure water out of the bottom.

With this cycle, pure water is continuously extracted from the equipment.

The director and several technicians of the sewage treatment plant were stunned. "It's too fast." The director of the sewage treatment plant looked at the outlet in disbelief.

The technician responsible for testing water quality quickly collected some water and went to the testing room in the factory for testing.

After more than an hour.

The test report came out, and the technician ran over with a hint of shock: "Manager, you meet the standards, and you can't detect all pollutants. It's purer than pure water."

"Really?" He grabbed it with one hand The factory manager saw the inspection report and widened his eyes, then turned his head and asked, "Xiao Li, how much energy is consumed? How much water is emitted?"

"It consumes about 80 cubic meters per hour, and the electricity consumption is about 1.4 per hour. "Xiao Li looked at the instrument and reported the number.

The factory manager was shocked and blurted out: "Damn! If this equipment is not expensive, it can instantly kill all the sewage treatment equipment now."

Another old employee nodded slightly: "Indeed, we The factory's maximum processing capacity per day is 20,000 cubic meters. This set of equipment can handle 1,914 cubic meters a day, and ten units can replace most of the sewage treatment equipment in our factory."

"The technical strength of Hailufeng Company is really terrifying." The factory director couldn't help but exclaim.

(This chapter ends)

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