Chapter 807 - The Gas Workshop

Beneath the soaring roof of the gas plant, more than a dozen cylindrical generators stood arrayed upon their reinforced-concrete pedestals like sentinels of industrial progress. Each unit employed water-jacket seals, while overhead, a network of gas-transfer pipes crisscrossed the elevated iron framework. The pipes themselves were cast iron, their joints sealed with a compound of water glass and crusite powder—currently the best corrosion-resistant sealant available. Lingao's insatiable appetite for crusite powder had spawned an entirely new industry across Guangdong and Fujian: the collection of broken porcelain. Kilns that had once discarded damaged or defective wares now found eager merchants at their doors, ready to ship the shards to Lingao where ball mills ground them into fine powder for industrial use.

The valves and flow meters were locally manufactured, and their reliability left much to be desired. As a precaution, the entire workshop stood open on all sides to maximize ventilation and prevent any leaks from proving fatal.

"What's the problem?" Jiang Ye leapt from the vehicle and immediately checked the birdcage hanging by the workshop entrance. In the absence of specialized chemicals to impart a warning odor to the gas, they relied on the oldest method known to miners: caged birds. Every facility handling gas kept them nearby. The little creature inside appeared lively enough, displaying no signs of distress.

"The Number Four generator's outlet temperature is climbing too fast!" The shift foreman's voice was taut with anxiety as he thrust the work log forward. He had once tended kilns, possessed of a near-mystical ability to gauge furnace temperatures by firelight alone. But since arriving in Lingao, industrial thermometers had rendered his secret art obsolete. Though his old skills had lost their value, his experience had not—thus his current post as foreman.

Jiang Ye scanned the work log, then peered through the observation window at the furnace's interior. Truth be told, his own familiarity with gas generators was limited to a crash course in the technical manuals.

"Off-center operation," he diagnosed. The ash layer inside the furnace had built up unevenly—high on one side, low on the other—causing the fire layer to slant accordingly. The elevated side ran hot while the depressed side ran cold. "Test the gas quality!"

Part of the furnace's output was diverted to a test burner on a branch pipe. Without proper instruments to analyze gas composition, they had to rely on the simplest method available: burning samples and observing the flame to roughly assess the main components.

"Report! Carbon monoxide content has dropped! Carbon dioxide is elevated!" called an apprentice from his station.

"Bring the furnace rods—we're going up top to clear the ash!" Jiang Ye ordered. Someone rushed to fetch the specialized equipment. "The rest of you—use hooks from the ash pan to rake out the slag below!"

Working methodically, Jiang Ye first broke up the accumulated ash layer to level it, then coordinated with the raking crews below to extract a considerable quantity of slag. Even a visual inspection confirmed his diagnosis—the ash showed high carbon content. Once the excess was cleared, he directed workers to tamp down the fuel layer where combustion burned fiercest, then add fresh fuel to restore uniformity.

Within the hour, both outlet temperature and gas quality had returned to normal parameters. The fault was cleared. Jiang Ye recognized this as the simplest kind of gas-generator malfunction—but also the most common. The transmigration enterprise operated gas generators on a considerable scale, yet the shortage of experienced operators remained an unsolved problem. Even critical projects like the steelworks couldn't secure enough skilled hands.

He surveyed the assembled crew. Aside from the foreman, not a single person possessed real experience operating a gas generator. Training still had far to go. When problems arose, even the foreman found himself at a loss.

Jiang Ye took a moment to explain the cause of the fault, the handling method employed, and the reasoning behind each step. These were fundamentals—with one experienced master to guide them, a unit of skilled workers could be trained in short order. The trouble was, the "master" himself wasn't particularly reliable.

Resolving the immediate fault was one matter; identifying the root cause was another. According to the technical manual, off-center operation stemmed from only a few sources—internal slag buildup or problems with the fuel itself. The internal slag had now been addressed.

Jiang Ye grabbed a handful of coal granules from the loading basket. The gasification furnace could burn various fuels; here they used slurry coal from the coal-washing plant—the dust and fines that settled from the wash water, collected, dried, and ground for use.

The coal felt damp against his palm. Too much moisture. His first diagnosis was confirmed.

"Look here—this coal is too wet." He opened his clenched fist to display the coal dust, which fell in small clumps rather than free-flowing grains. "High moisture means uneven loading, which causes an uneven fuel bed. With raw material like this, you must level it out immediately after loading." His gaze swept across the assembled workers. "Who loaded the furnace today?"

"I—I did," a worker admitted hesitantly, raising his hand.

"Why didn't you follow the procedure in the operations manual?" Jiang Ye's voice hardened. "Cutting corners causes accidents. You failed to level the fuel today, and we got a fault. At best, it disrupts production. At worst, if left unaddressed, it burns through the furnace body and causes a catastrophic accident. You'd die for nothing—and take your coworkers with you."

The unfortunate worker trembled, unable to speak. "Die for nothing" was a devastating pronouncement. Were it not for the "new society" in Lingao, he would already be on his knees begging for mercy.

"Dock his work points per regulations," Jiang Ye instructed the foreman. "Hold a squad meeting after the shift and give him some 'help.'"

Besides commune members, all naturalized workers and employees now operated under the work-point system. However, this form of labor compensation was far more sophisticated than the simple labor points commune members earned from assigned tasks. The HR specialists among the Elders were developing a comprehensive compensation system incorporating fixed wages, bonus calculations, fringe benefits, and mandatory work-injury and labor insurance—all built upon the foundation of work points.

"Yes, yes," the foreman nodded vigorously.

The foreman himself was docked points for failing to supervise properly. The leadership responsibility system was being rolled out across the enterprise: since leaders received higher pay and greater perks than ordinary workers, they bore correspondingly greater responsibility.

On his way back to the command post, Jiang Ye stole a moment amid his busy schedule to record the entire fault-handling process in his work notebook. He noted the need to send a memo to the fuel management department: coal particles smaller than ten millimeters shouldn't be used as gasification feedstock—better to press them into briquettes instead. There was also the moisture issue to address. Slurry coal naturally retained high moisture content; it needed at least several more days of drying.

From the gas workshop, the elevated pipeline extended toward the open-hearth facility. Most of its supports were brick pillars reinforced with internal wrought-iron columns. Watching workers haul mortar buckets and lay bricks one by one, Jiang Ye sighed. If only they had sufficient steel, welded supports would be faster and stronger. When would these makeshift days of industrialization finally end? Steel was the skeleton of industry. Without enough of it, Lingao's vaunted modern industrial system was like a patient afflicted with rickets—unable to exert its full strength.

He recalled the recent technical discussions at the steel combine regarding the iron mixer. Some Elders from the Machinery and Metallurgical sectors had argued that the mixer was essential process equipment for open-hearth steelmaking and should be added to the manufacturing program. An iron mixer served to regulate and balance the supply of molten iron between blast furnace and converter, ensuring uninterrupted feed for the steelmaking process. Storing and mixing the iron in such a device evened out composition and temperature—highly beneficial for converter operations. With a mixer, molten pig iron from the blast furnace could flow directly into the open-hearth, bypassing the cumbersome process of first casting ingots and then remelting in a cupola furnace. The fuel savings would be substantial, and the advantages of continuous production fully realized.

But when it came to actual manufacturing, the Machinery Sector discovered that building a fifty-ton mixer capable of both movement and tilting presented a cascade of problems with critical moving parts. In the end, they decided to employ the less economical but simpler process of smelting pig-iron ingots, deferring the mixer until materials improved.

This setback fully exposed the shortcomings of material scarcity. If only the Metallurgical Department could reliably supply steel of the required grades, Jiang Ye reflected, manufacturing those parts wouldn't be entirely impossible. Fortunately, the iron mixer was merely an ancillary improvement—not a decisive piece of production equipment.

Lingao Steel Company's new steelmaking workshop had abandoned the old converter method—the so-called Bessemer process—in favor of the more efficient Siemens-Martin method: the open-hearth process. Open-hearth furnaces served not only steelmaking but also the glass industry and various other smelting applications. It was a remarkably efficient technology.

In open-hearth steelmaking, coal gas served as fuel. Under direct flame heating, pig iron, scrap steel, high-grade iron ore, and other raw materials melted and refined into molten steel on a large scale. In the original timeline, this remained the dominant steelmaking method until the 1960s, with production efficiency and steel quality far exceeding the traditional Bessemer converter. The open-hearth furnace's fundamental principle was heat recovery—it required no separate regenerator because one was incorporated into its very design.

In converter steelmaking, the heat required for smelting came from the process itself—the chemical reactions of the furnace charge. The open-hearth process required external heat: specifically, an efficient, controllable, and relatively clean gaseous fuel.

Coal gas.

(End of Chapter)