Chapter 039 Sponge
Biomaterials Laboratory.
The head of the research room, Quinine Mark, and the head of the management room, Pasteur (Soldier), were also waiting for Li Qingye's arrival at the door.
This laboratory specializes in the research of biological materials. They received a special material from Caragua Island some time ago and have almost completed their research on it.
Li Qingye, who came from the methanogenetic laboratory, finished reading the research report in his hand.
“You guys did a great job.”
Quinine said excitedly: "Boss, the sponge you provided is really great. If it can be mass-produced or artificially synthesized, it may change the current industrial landscape."
The sponge he mentioned is actually a genetically modified organism.
The body of this genetically modified sponge is a new nanostructure, which is a new variety cultivated by Li Qingye by combining biology, nanomaterials and crystallography. He named this special nanostructure - Crystal Storage Resonance Hole.
The function of the crystal storage resonance hole is to press water and gas into its nanostructure through a certain pressure, turning it into special crystalline water.
So what is the use of this crystal sponge composed of crystal storage resonance holes?
Its use lies in the fact that it can compress gas. One cubic meter of crystal sponge can compress 460 to 500 cubic meters of methane or other alkane gases.
The critical value of this compression pressure is only 3.7 times the atmospheric pressure.
Once the gas is pressed into the crystal sponge, a relatively stable unit cell state will be formed. Even if the ambient temperature reaches hundreds of degrees Celsius, the gas stored in it will not be released. Its critical point release temperature is above 148 degrees Celsius.
However, the crystal storage resonance cavity has another characteristic, that is, at a specific resonance frequency, the stability of its unit cell will drop rapidly, thereby releasing the gas stored therein.
This gives the crystal sponge the ability to store and release gas at a low cost.
You should know that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships currently on the market are not only extremely expensive to build, but also have high operating and maintenance costs.
The liquefied natural gas in liquefied natural gas ships is liquefied by using ultra-low temperatures to liquefy methane gas. During the transportation process, the temperature must be kept low (-162 degrees Celsius) throughout the process, which is extremely dangerous.
1 cubic meter of liquefied natural gas can be converted into 625 cubic meters of gaseous natural gas.
The crystal sponge can store 460 to 500 cubic meters of gaseous methane per cubic meter .
In terms of unit storage capacity of gas between the two, liquefied natural gas is slightly better; however, crystal sponge can be stored at room temperature and pressure, while liquefied natural gas needs to be kept at a low temperature of -162 degrees Celsius at all times.
This is where the advantage of crystal sponge comes into play.
After all, the cost of building a liquefied natural gas ship is very high. Take the Dapeng, which was manufactured in China, as an example. Its construction cost is as high as 160 million US dollars and it can transport 147,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas at a time.
A Panamax transport ship with a carrying capacity of 4,500 standard containers costs only about US$70 million.
Usually the volume of a standard container is 24 to 26 cubic meters, and 4,500 standard containers are 108,000 to 117,000 cubic meters.
What's more, LNG ships face another problem. Since the LNG they transport is different from ordinary cargo, it requires special ports for loading and unloading and storage.
If crystal sponges are used as storage containers, there will be no need for overly complex specialized ports, and other container ships can also be modified.
However, Li Qingye is not aiming too high at this stage. Zhiren Company has no plans to enter the natural gas tanker industry. The main reason is that the water is too complicated and it is easy to be targeted by the five major gangsters.
Moreover, the production of crystal sponges is insufficient. Even with the use of growth hormones and nutrient solution, one acre of sea field can only produce about 200 to 300 cubic meters of crystal sponges per year.
In the short term, it can only be supplied to the internal use of the Sapiens company.
Now that the Homo Sapiens Company wants to build a number of methane plants, it needs crystal sponges to make storage containers, which can save a lot of costs.
Gaseous methane storage tanks at normal temperature and pressure occupy a large area and are also expensive;
Not to mention the liquefied natural gas storage tanks, plus the large number of supporting low-temperature maintenance equipment, gasification equipment, transmission pipelines, etc., it is obvious at a glance that they are very expensive and very dangerous. Once an operational error occurs, the entire factory may be destroyed.
Regarding the crystal sponge storage tank, according to the research of Quinine et al. and the production process department.
To manufacture a crystal sponge storage tank, in addition to the core material of crystal sponge, it also requires vibration absorption and barrier layers, flame retardant steel shell, sound wave generator, electronic control system, pressurized injection pump, one-way air valve, safety valve, alarm and pipeline.
The technical difficulty of these things is not great. The only thing that requires technical content is actually the production and deep processing of crystal sponges.
In fact, Li Qingye’s main purpose in developing these things is not to make money, but for energy security.
Luzon is a place with scarce energy resources.
There are only a few small coal and natural gas mines in its territory, and no oil fields worth exploiting.
Now the thermal power plants of our subsidiary Jade Energy have to import coal from Java and Australia. It is extremely unreliable to rely solely on imports for energy.
Since natural energy minerals are scarce, Li Qingye took a different approach and directly used biogas as the core energy source.
As for whether biogas can meet Luzon's needs, Li Qingye, who masters biotechnology, is very confident.
The genetically modified methanogens developed recently are about 2.7 times more efficient at decomposing organic matter and producing methane than current natural bacteria. They do not require other auxiliary bacteria and can complete the decomposition of organic matter on their own.
The reason why efficiency can be improved so much is that the energy conversion chain is shortened, the reaction time is shortened, and the continuous decrease of energy during multiple conversions over a long period of time is avoided.
Genetically modified methanogens can directly decompose organic matter, which reduces energy waste.
Moreover, the organic matter that can be decomposed by genetically modified methanogens includes not only animal excrement and animal and plant corpses, but also some man-made organic matter, such as the famous plastic products.
In this way, Jade Energy can build waste recycling plants near various cities, and then send the biomass waste and plastic products in them for fermentation and decomposition, which will reduce pollution and waste and obtain methane.
It can also collect factory waste from surrounding areas, crop waste from farms, and manure from livestock farms.
Through this model, regional energy self-sufficiency can basically be achieved.
In case of emergency, the Eucheuma starch produced in Haitian can also be used as raw material for producing methane.
In today's human society, energy is not just about electricity and heat, it also involves food security.
If Sapiens wants to become a giant company that dominates the future of mankind, it cannot have any shortcomings. Energy plays a vital role in the entire industrial chain.
Promoting Luzon’s energy self-reliance is one of the next strategies of the Sapiens Company.
After inspecting these laboratories, Li Qingye was relatively satisfied with the current progress of each project, and just as he was about to return to Caragua Island.
Some feedback from Manila made Chen Jianxiong stop in his tracks.
