Chapter 131 - Energy Use

The coking plant of the metallurgical department also produced coal gas, but this coal gas was basically used in metallurgy and metal processing. There was no surplus to supply other departments. Besides, the distance was a bit far. To lay a well-sealed gas pipeline for long-distance gas transmission and to manufacture gas tanks to store gas… the transmigrators had not yet reached this industrial level. Therefore, the starting point of the industrial and agricultural gas furnace designed by Wang Luobin was to be able to use gas on the spot.

Wang Luobin had a lot of information on gas furnaces on hand, especially on native gas furnaces. They were numerous and full of strange ideas. But he did not trust these materials. Native gas furnaces blossomed everywhere during the Great Leap Forward era, with exaggerated claims, but they disappeared without a trace after the movement was over. Obviously, there were problems with their economy, safety, and practicality. He had lived in the countryside in the past and had experienced countless similar “technology promotions,” such as biogas digesters, native solar stoves… In the end, they all either disappeared or were half-dead for various reasons.

It can be seen that the promotion of a new technology must take into account many factors, and the most important are practicality and economy. Neither can be lacking.

Therefore, in the selection and structural design of the gas generator, he abandoned many of the too “native” contents and tried to be more “modern” within the scope of the transmigrators’ industrial capabilities to ensure its effective use.

He chose a downdraft circular furnace for the food processing plant, with a diameter of 1.5 meters and a height of 3.5 meters. It used a blower to blow air. This furnace had a larger furnace chamber, and the air and fuel were evenly distributed. The gasification intensity was very high, and it could gasify 60 kilograms of coal per hour. The required materials: refractory bricks, red bricks, cement, and cast iron, could all be provided by the industrial department. The sealing method used a water seal, which was simple and safe. The most difficult thing to make was nothing more than a reverse check valve—this was a cast iron part with almost no difficulty.

After the coal gas was produced, it first passed through a brick cyclone dust collector for dust removal, and then was washed with water to remove tar and dust. The clean coal gas produced after cooling was used by the diesel engine. The wastewater used for washing, because it contained a large amount of tar, was recycled and treated by the chemical department.

A high-power steam generator was also installed in the furnace, which used the heat of the gasification furnace to burn steam during fuel gasification. This also solved part of the food processing plant’s demand for steam.

In order to facilitate ventilation and avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, the gas furnace was built under an open shed. The gas generator, blower, and diesel engine were integrated into a power workshop. The gas-driven diesel engine drove a horizontal shaft through a belt for transmission. Various machines and equipment could be driven as long as the belt on the flywheel was connected to the horizontal shaft. This Changchai 22-horsepower engine was enough to meet all the power needs of the food processing plant—including the needs of the blower that kept the gas furnace running.

The furnace was successfully ignited once after it was built. The fuel used was coal from Leizhou. After winning the sugar war, the Leizhou Sugar Company, taking advantage of the great opportunity of the death of the entire Zhu family, directly annexed Zhu Sanye’s shipping company. In addition to transporting sugar to Guangzhou and Lin’gao, the dozen or so large ships also transported coal—all of which were purchased by Chang Shide from the local area and the neighboring Gaizhou and Lianzhou. This kind of coal was of relatively poor quality and was just right for gasification.

Another advantage of the gas furnace was that the requirements for the stoker were not high. There was no technology to speak of, as long as they strictly followed the regulations. The work of adding fuel was not heavy either, unlike a boiler that needed to be fed with coal at all times. Wu Nanhai selected an old man in his fifties from the semi-labor force of the Bairen Commune to take charge of this matter. Although he looked very old, he still had some strength, was sharp-eyed and clear-headed, and not muddle-headed.

When the gas furnace was ignited, Wang Luobin personally came to start the diesel engine with a hand crank. After a few crackles, the diesel engine started to run with a “putt-putt” sound, which felt no different from when it was running on diesel.

Wang Luobin used the gas furnace of the food processing plant as a demonstration sample for gas furnaces.

Huang Dashan was very appreciative of the gas furnace project—the high calorific value and stable heat generation of the gas were very beneficial for controlling the temperature. For fermentation and enzyme decomposition, the temperature requirements were quite strict.

The gas furnace of the food processing plant greatly alleviated the consumption of biogas produced by the farm. This place was originally a major consumer of the farm’s biogas. The gas production of the biogas digester was very unstable. One of Wu Nanhai’s biggest headaches was that although many biogas digesters had been built, no matter how well the digester was designed or how large its capacity was, there would always be problems with reduced gas supply from time to time, and sometimes the gas would suddenly stop. They had to urgently call for fuel to supplement it.

Wang Luobin personally stood by the furnace for half a day, observing the combustion situation. After feeling that everything was normal, he then instructed Mo Xiaoan, “Hang some birdcages in this shed and the nearby workshops, and raise a few birds.”

“What for?”

“As an alarm, to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.” Birds are much less tolerant of carbon monoxide than humans and can warn of a carbon monoxide leak.

“No need. The smell of a gas leak is so strong, it’s impossible not to smell it…”

Wang Luobin glanced at this Minister of Light Industry, “Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless. That smell is added.”

“I see, I see,” Mo Xiaoan broke out in a sweat—he had made a fool of himself on the spot. “I’ll arrange it right away.”

Wang Luobin took another turn around the food factory—he now had an important task to estimate the energy use of the transmigrators, in order to make overall arrangements for the various prime movers and energy sources currently in use, to improve their utilization efficiency.

The prime movers currently used by the transmigrator group were mainly electric motors, which were powered by two power stations and sporadic wind turbines.

The use of electricity was clean and convenient, and the electric motors worked stably, making them the best choice for prime movers. However, the Industrial and Energy Committee believed in an internal assessment that it was very difficult to self-produce electric motors and various related equipment, including generators, transformers, converters, cables… This difficulty was mainly in the materials. In particular, the magnetic steel sheets used in electric motors were far from being able to be manufactured by ordinary native methods. For the industrial capacity of the transmigrator group, manufacturing the equipment was not difficult. The difficulty was that the raw materials could only be used from the brought reserves, and there would be no replenishment after they were used up. Considering the need to supplement damaged and repaired equipment, these materials and parts must have a certain amount of inventory. Before these problems were overcome, electricity was obviously not the main development direction.

Besides electric motors, there were steam engines. This kind of machine, since the mass production of the 50-horsepower Mozi II by the machinery factory, had been gradually promoted in various places. The steam engine had the worst efficiency, but its advantage was its low technical content. The boiler could use all kinds of fuel. It was the main source of power for the transmigrators in the near future.

As for diesel engines, gasoline engines, and the like, they relied on the reserved petroleum fuel. Now that they were gradually being “gasified,” they would have broad application prospects. Although the output power of the internal combustion engines they had was small, they had the advantages of small size, light weight, and convenient movement. They were much more convenient to use than the heavy steam engine + boiler power combination. The coal gas generator could be large or small, with flexible configuration, and the fuel demand was not high.

Promoting the coal gas generator was only one part of this plan. Wang Luobin also planned to improve the fuel utilization efficiency by deep processing the fuel and modifying the combustion devices.

The transmigrators used a wide variety of fuels. In addition to the fuel oil they brought with them and the biogas produced by the biogas digesters, the largest source of fuel was coal. From the boilers of the steam engines to the cooking fires in the canteens, it was indispensable. The second largest was various wood scraps, sawdust, straw, and the like. The calorific value of various fuels was different, and their use was also very extensive. Wang Luobin proposed in the plan to change the past practice of random and unstandardized fuel distribution and instead establish a fuel plant. Except for biogas, all fuels would be uniformly pre-processed and then collected by various departments.

This fuel plant would temporarily set up a simple coal processing workshop and at the same time receive the original wood dry distillation kiln.

The coal processing workshop was responsible for washing the coal transported from other places. The coal transported from Hongji and Guangdong was all mined by native methods, with a large amount of impurities mixed in. Moreover, the quality of the coal was also different. Coal with low internal ash content and coal with high internal ash content were mixed together. Throwing them into the boiler to burn without distinction would be a great waste.

By washing the coal to remove impurities from the raw coal, and then simply classifying the high-quality coal and low-quality coal, and removing the coal gangue, the utilization efficiency of the coal could be greatly improved.

As for wood-based fuels, except for sawdust and materials that could not be dry-distilled, they would no longer be directly burned. Instead, they would be dry-distilled into charcoal in a dry distillation kiln to improve combustion efficiency, reduce pollution, and at the same time recover wood tar. The waste heat of the dry distillation kiln would be used by an evaporator to produce steam for the factories in Bopu.

In addition to coking coal, fuel coal and charcoal would be uniformly converted into standard coal units and supplied to various departments in order to accurately calculate the fuel consumption of each department.

As for straw and rice husk fuels, they would be used by the Agricultural Committee itself. Wang Luobin suggested that rice husks should not be used as fuel for the time being—this thing contained a large amount of silicon dioxide, and burning it would cause great pollution. Special devices were needed to use it effectively as fuel.

For the many stoves currently in the canteens, factories, and even dormitories, except for biogas stoves, Wang Luobin decided to conduct a comprehensive investigation and registration, unify the stove types, dismantle the simple stoves with low fuel and heat energy utilization, and at the same time forcibly promote the use of honeycomb briquettes. The manufacturing technology of honeycomb briquettes was simple. The coal dust at the bottom left after screening the coal in the fuel plant was passed through a mill once, mixed with yellow soil in proportion, and could be made with a simple hand-cranked briquette machine. Two or three workers could make thousands of them a day, which was enough for these stoves.