Galaxy Technology Empire

Huang Haojie watched the experimental seawater desalination equipment of the Seawater Desalination Research Institute on the west side of Shanmei City.

There are three huge reservoirs, one is a seawater reservoir, one is a desalinated freshwater reservoir, and the last one is a brine reservoir.

Huang Junjie brought a beaker from the side and filled a cup of water from the fresh water reservoir.

"Is there a kettle?"

"Xiao Wang, go get a kettle." Yuan Quan ordered the assistant beside him.

Within a few minutes, Xiao Wang came over with a kettle.

Fan Chengan quickly helped boil water.

Huang Junjie came to the brine reservoir. The brine is the residue after seawater desalination, which is a high-concentration sodium chloride (salt) solution. Of course, it contains not only sodium chloride, but also other compounds.

Seawater contains various salts, about 90% of which is sodium chloride, which is table salt.

It also contains magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate, magnesium carbonate and other salts containing various elements such as potassium, iodine, sodium and bromine.

In fact, seawater is a veritable liquid mineral deposit, with an average of 35.7 million tons of minerals per cubic kilometer of seawater. Of the more than 100 known elements in the world, 80% can be found in seawater.

11 chemical components with a content greater than 1 mg/kg in seawater.

They include: 5 cations such as sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium and strontium; 5 anions such as chloride, sulfate, bicarbonate (including carbonate), bromide and fluoride; boric acid molecules.

The total amount of these components accounts for more than 99.9% of all dissolved components in seawater.

Rock weathering products and volcanic eruptions carried by rivers into the sea are the main sources of the main dissolved components of seawater.

Since the ocean appeared on the surface of the blue star, not only has it experienced changes in the sea and land during the long geological time, but also the dissolved components in the seawater have evolved.

Although the salt content of seawater in each ocean varies with the sea area and depth, there is a constant ratio between the contents of the main dissolved components of seawater. The composition of seawater is said to be constant, and these components are said to be conservative components.

…

Gulu... The cup of fresh water taken from the fresh water reservoir just now boiled in a short while.

After waiting for a while, the boiling water cooled down. Huang Haojie came over and said with a smile:

"Let me taste it first today, what this seawater tastes like after desalination."

After pouring themselves a glass, Yuan Quan and others also poured themselves a glass.

After taking the first sip, there was no taste and it was blander than plain water. I drank the entire glass of water.

"Yes, this water is pure water."

"Our technology is definitely the best in the world. Even if you drink this fresh water directly, it won't be a big problem." Yuan Quan replied with a smile.

"We can't rest on our laurels. I just saw the brine reservoir. We need to make use of the brine." Huang Haojie suggested.

Yuan Quan was also very interested when he heard it. After all, the overall storage capacity of both macroelements and trace elements in seawater is very huge.

After all, the total amount of seawater in Blue Star is 1.32 billion cubic kilometers, and 1 cubic kilometer is equivalent to 1 billion cubic meters. With such a huge total amount, even if the average content is very low, the total amount will not be much less.

Although the content of gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, aluminum, etc. is small, if these elements are extracted from the ocean, 55 million tons of gold, 400 million tons of silver, 13.7 billion tons of iron, 4.1 billion tons of tin and 13.7 billion tons of aluminum.

The content of gold in seawater is between 0.01 and 0.04 mg per ton of water.

In other words, if a factory with an annual output of 40 billion cubic meters of fresh water extracts elements from seawater, it can extract 400 to 1,200 kilograms of gold, 9 tons of silver, 320 tons of iron, 90 tons of tin, and 320 tons of aluminum.

In addition, about 90 tons of yellow cake can be extracted.

Among these things, silver, gold, and yellow cake all have important significance.

Silver is an important raw material for Galaxy Technology's normal temperature superconductors, gold is hard currency, and yellow cake can generate electricity and grow mushrooms.

Of course, Huang Junjie has no interest in growing mushrooms. Similarly, the power generation efficiency of yellow cake is average, which is much worse than growing the sun.

His ideal advanced energy source is nuclear fusion power generation.

Of course, even if you don’t use the yellow cake yourself, you can sell it to me as a rabbit.

"Mr. Huang, what elements do you plan to extract?" Yuan Quan asked.

"Gold, silver, and yellow cake, these three are the main extracts." Huang Junjie certainly believes that these are products that can quickly pay back the investment.

"Of course, other compounds should not be wasted, especially potassium sulfate and the like. Our fertilizer plants can use them as raw materials for production, or they can be sold to other domestic chemical plants."

Yuan Quan nodded and said: "No problem, we will set up a research and development team as soon as possible to tackle the extraction of these elements."

In fact, Huang Haojie didn't mention it, but the Seawater Desalination Research Institute also has plans in this regard.

After all, once the desalination plant is put into use, it will not only produce 40 billion cubic meters of fresh water every year.

The water content of seawater is 96.5%, which means that 3.5% of by-products are produced.

This 3.5% by-product is about 1.45 billion tons. If it is divided equally among everyone in the country, it is almost 1 ton per capita.

Among them, there are 1.126 billion tons of sodium chloride, 158 million tons of magnesium chloride, 71 million tons of magnesium sulfate, 52 million tons of calcium sulfate, 36 million tons of potassium sulfate, 4.35 million tons of calcium carbonate, 4.35 million tons of magnesium bromide and others.

These are all macronutrients, plus a whole bunch of micronutrients.

Huang Haojie now has a headache when he thinks about this large amount of sodium chloride. China only produces 60 to 70 million tons of sodium chloride a year, and the desalination plant produces as much as 11.26 million tons of sodium chloride a year. billion tons.

If so many raw materials rush into the market, the world's sodium chloride market can be crushed. The problem is that the gain outweighs the loss.

If not used, it can only be piled up, which is another waste.

Similarly, the by-products of other large amounts of elements are also in a situation where the supply exceeds the demand. You can only use part for yourself and reserve part.

It seems that we need to discuss with the Materials Research Institute and let them study the utilization of these desalination by-products.

Discovering that the production volume is too large for the first time is also an annoyance.

Think about it in the future, if desalination plants are deployed in the northern seas, even more by-products will be produced.

After inspecting the situation of the Desalination Research Institute, Huang Junjie took his secretary and bodyguard to the Neutron Star Company non-stop.

The desalination membrane is produced by Neutron Star.

Huang Haojie looked at the seawater desalination film being manufactured in the production workshop and asked Huang Yongdong beside him:

“How is the production status of Yongdong seawater desalination membrane?”

"We completed the construction of the first production line half a month ago and conducted trial production a week ago. The annual output is expected to be around 500,000 square meters." Huang Yongdong replied quickly.

"Not bad! How much do you plan to set the ex-factory price?"

"It costs 8,000 Chinese yuan per square meter, of which 1,500 Chinese yuan is the production cost, and the other 1,300 Chinese yuan is the patent fee for the research institute."

Huang Junjie nodded. The Galaxy Technology Research Institute has patent fees. If Huang Junjie does not invent something, 20% of the profit will be paid as patent fees.

For example, the patent for seawater desalination membrane was invented by Yuan Quan's team. Although the improved patent for seawater desalination membrane, the original Yuan Quan team's patent contribution dropped to about 60%, of which Yuan Quan personally occupied 30% of the patent.

In other words, once the first seawater desalination plant is put into operation, the seawater desalination membrane patent alone will bring about 45 million yuan in pre-tax income to Yuan Quan personally every year.

After all, Huang Junjie couldn't do it if he wanted the horses to run and not let them eat grass, because doing so would be tantamount to destroying the Great Wall.

In Galaxy Technology, the income of researchers or engineers is very high. The highest among them is Li Xiang, director of the Materials Research Institute. His income last year was 670 million yuan before tax.

This is mainly because Li Xiang has a lot of invention patents in the Materials Research Institute. Although they are not revolutionary achievements, he can't bear the large number, so his annual income is very high.