Chapter 15: The Conference — Energy Issues

"Let's begin with energy," Xiao Zishan said, turning to face the Energy Group. "Power is the foundation of everything else. As long as we have electricity, we can operate modern machinery, run computers—all the advantages that would make us utterly superior to the ancients. So what does Energy have to say about our power supply?"

The speaker for the Energy Group was Chang Kaishen. For five years he'd worked as a temp at a power corporation subsidiary—the type of worker who shouldered the heaviest loads, earned the lowest wages, received none of the credit, and took all of the blame.

"Given our circumstances," he began, "the optimal strategy is hydropower as our primary source, supplemented by thermal and wind generation. The benefits of hydropower are numerous—I won't belabor them—but for our purposes, the greatest advantage is that it requires no fuel replenishment. Once constructed, a hydroelectric station runs almost indefinitely.

"Modern small-scale rural hydropower equipment is remarkably simple. Installation difficulty is low, engineering investment minimal. Power is generated through diversion channels; a head of just five or six meters is sufficient. The technology is mature. Small and micro units are manufactured in standardized domestic series—easy to maintain and inexpensive.

"At the same time, we'll need thermal power. There are various options for thermal prime movers, but diesel generators will be our workhorse in the early landing phase. They're convenient, require no supporting infrastructure, and aren't constrained by environment."

Someone raised a hand. "Diesel will run out eventually. What then?"

"Diesel engines can use substitutes fairly easily," another member of the Energy Group offered. "I recall you can even run them on peanut oil."

"I don't know about peanut oil," Chang Kaishen said thoughtfully, "but diesel engines can certainly convert to producer gas. When I was in the countryside, I saw plenty of small power stations running on gas engines. Shouldn't be difficult."

"I believe we'll eventually produce our own diesel," Xiao Zishan interjected. "Please continue."

"All right." Chang Kaishen nodded. "Based on the principle of not putting all our eggs in one basket, we should prepare small-to-medium diesel generators, small hydro units, and small wind turbines. We should also bring medium-capacity hydro equipment for future expansion once we've developed sufficient engineering capability. Wind turbines have low output and unstable generation, but they're simple to set up—suitable as backup power for living areas, outposts, and system redundancy."

He smiled. "Of course, power generation is only part of the picture. Transmission, distribution, voltage transformation—these are all highly technical matters. I won't go into detail here. A concrete plan will take time to develop."

The next topic also fell to the Energy Group: petroleum substitutes. The transmigrators would need more than generators; they would need motorcycles, automobiles, and small boats. Neither gasoline nor diesel could be stored indefinitely. Without fuel self-sufficiency, there was little point in bringing large numbers of such vehicles.

"I'm afraid I can't agree with the moderator's framing," announced Luo Duo, who had contributed enormous amounts of energy-related content during the online discussions. "Though I understand the moderator is a humanities major, so that's understandable."

Xiao Zishan's face flushed. His greatest grievance was hearing "humanities major" wielded as an insult. He suppressed his indignation and maintained a facade of composure.

"What we're really discussing is a prime-mover problem," Luo Duo continued, apparently oblivious to the moderator's simmering resentment. "Ships, cars, motorcycles—all of them can run on non-petroleum fuels. So petroleum substitutes aren't actually urgent.

"Fundamentally, any petroleum-fueled prime mover can convert to producer gas, albeit with some power loss. But near the end of World War II, the Germans experimentally installed gas generators on armored personnel carriers and even tanks, so the output is clearly acceptable. Gas-generator technology is simple and practical, with low implementation difficulty.

"And let's not forget the steam engine. How long have gasoline and diesel engines even existed? The steam engine was the engine of the Industrial Revolution."

"Is there anywhere to even buy steam engines nowadays?" someone from the Machinery Group spoke up. "Don't tell me you expect us to manufacture them ourselves."

"You machinists—building a steam engine shouldn't be hard, should it? That's nineteenth-century technology!" Luo Duo retorted. "Our prime movers can't run on stockpiles forever."

"We've never actually built one," the Machinery Group representative admitted after a brief huddle with his colleagues. Ma Qianzhu rose to speak. "Everyone understands the basic principle, and there's plenty of design material available. We're confident we can build one. The boiler presents the main difficulty—it depends on what materials we can produce. That's really a question for Metallurgy."

"Currently, Metallurgy falls under the Industry Group," Xiao Zishan clarified. "I recall we have specialists in that area."

"That's right—we have a college student majoring in metallurgy." Several people laughed, and a young man smiled sheepishly at the attention.

"Coordinate within your group and come up with a plan," Xiao Zishan instructed. "Please continue."

"That's all I can think of for now." Luo Duo looked excited but was clearly showing signs of fatigue.

"Why not consider biodiesel?" someone asked. "There's been considerable coverage lately; many countries have reached the practical stage."

"Right—I recall Hainan has a type of kerosene tree. Cut the bark and the sap can be used as lamp oil."

"It only works for lamps; it's not real kerosene," Ma Qianzhu said authoritatively. "Biodiesel is far from simple. There are many oil-bearing crops—oil camellia, tung trees, Pistacia chinensis, bamboo tung—but none of their oils can be used directly as diesel. They all require modification processes. Besides, having just a few trees is useless. Such plantations need at least a hundred mu before they constitute an effective supply."

"By the way, oil-nan trees must grow to forty or fifty centimeters in trunk diameter before they produce oil," someone from Agriculture added. "Based on current findings, in Hainan they only grow in Sanya, Ledong, Dongfang, Changjiang, and Baisha—areas with better conditions than Lingao or Danzhou."

"We could distill pine-root oil. The Japanese did this in World War II—you don't need specialized equipment to refine it into aviation gasoline."

"True, but the cost-effectiveness is terrible. The Japanese mobilized practically their entire population and produced only tens of thousands of barrels. Besides, Hainan doesn't have that many pine roots to begin with."

"What about alcohol?" The biofuel faction wasn't ready to concede.

"Alcohol can work as a substitute, but its heat value is too low and it causes engine carbon buildup. It's not an ideal solution."

"I have one more perspective on petroleum substitutes." Another person stood. "I'm Zhong Lishi. I work in oil-shale retorting equipment design. I once designed refining equipment for a plant in Danzhou City, Hainan.

"That city has abundant oil-shale reserves. Products from oil-shale retorting can be further refined into various petroleum products. Manufacturing gasoline and diesel is entirely feasible."

"Where's Danzhou?" someone muttered.

"Just west of Lingao. Very close."

"That resource sounds promising."

"Let me give a brief introduction," Zhong Lishi continued. "Changpo oil shale has 5.1% oil content and is associated with lignite deposits. The Changpo site has two main ore bodies, six meters and forty-four and a half meters thick respectively. Mining is primarily open-pit.

"We can use Maoming-type retorts. Each retort processes fifty tons of ore per day, with sixty percent oil recovery. At Changpo's 5.1% oil content, that means each retort yields one and a half tons of crude shale oil daily—not counting by-products like gasoline and ammonia.

"These retorts don't require extensive resources or much labor. To commission a small plant processing 1,600 tons of ore per day—that's thirty-two retorts—we'd also need two gas-heating furnaces, one ventilation building, two scrubbing towers, two cooling towers, and two chimneys. I have ready-made drawings; the equipment isn't particularly difficult to manufacture. Such a plant would produce forty-eight tons of crude per day, plus by-products including gasoline, ammonia, coal gas, and phenol—all extremely useful.

"Oil-shale crude is high quality. It refines into premium diesel. Both diesel and gasoline engines can operate normally—no need for gas-engine conversions."

"Processing 1,600 tons daily!" Luo Duo jumped to his feet. "Even if every one of us carried rocks all day, it wouldn't be enough!"

"For an oil-shale plant, that's already quite small," Zhong Lishi replied with the inscrutable smile of a senior technical expert. "In reality, transport is handled by train and conveyor belt. The design output I mentioned is less than what a single unit produces at a real shale-oil plant.

"And if you think Changpo's oil yield is too low, consider this: the oil shale in Huangxian and Penglai, Shandong has 22% oil content. If we still don't have petroleum extraction capability within ten or twenty years, we might consider taking Shandong first."

A murmur rippled through the crowd. Several people from the Athletics Group were huddled over a map of China, tracing routes with their fingers.

"Let's have Energy include this as a long-term plan, contingent on what manufacturing capabilities we develop," Wen Desi said. "Let's continue." He glanced at Xiao Zishan, who nodded his agreement.

(End of Chapter)