Go back to the past and be a schoolboy

Chapter 194 Set Sichuan
The main materials for the synthesis of ammonia are hydrogen and nitrogen.

Cheng Nuo didn't worry about things like nitrogen. The volume fraction in the air reaches 78%. Air exists widely in nature and is the best source of nitrogen.
To use the nitrogen in the air to synthesize ammonia, it can be obtained by separating the oxygen and nitrogen in the air,
Or the oxygen in the air is consumed by combustion to obtain nitrogen.

Regardless of the purity, it was enough for Cheng Nuo and the others to use, especially since it was only in the preparatory test stage, it would be easier to deal with it regardless of the cost.

As for the treatment of hydrogen, Cheng Nuo and the others needed to spend some time thinking.

The vast majority of the process of ammonia synthesis is to produce hydrogen, which is commonly produced in industry by reacting coke, coal, natural gas, light oil, heavy oil and other fuels with water vapor at high temperature.

For the industrial base of this era, it is obviously not realistic to directly use gaseous hydrocarbons (natural gas, etc.) and heavy oil, etc.

Not to mention the craftsmanship, but the source of the acquisition was enough to make Cheng Nuo lose his hair.

Just like in history, if Japan discovered a large amount of oil reserves in our country, it would not send troops to Southeast Asia. The pattern of World War II will be very different.

So after thinking about it again and again, Cheng Nuo decided to start from coal and use coal as raw material to synthesize ammonia.

We all know that Shanxi is rich in coal resources and easy to mine, but Cheng Nuo also knows that when Little Japan comes in the future, all these chemical plants will be completed, and the foundation laid will be given away in vain, and it is not an exaggeration to invest in enemies in vain.

Chemical nitrogen fertilizer is the most important and common chemical fertilizer in modern times. Until the early 20th century, western countries mainly used natural nitrogen fertilizer (Chilean saltpeter).

However, since the First World War, with the advancement of nitrogen utilization technology in the air, Western countries have begun to use a large amount of chemical nitrogen fertilizer, choric sulfate.

Just like Germany at the same time, in the early 20th century, Germany was the world's largest nitrogen fertilizer importer and the largest consumer of Chilean saltpeter. However, by the end of World War I, Germany could not only meet its own needs, but also export chemical nitrogen fertilizers in large quantities. .

But the problem is that during the First World War, Germany could not bear the domestic conflicts, leading to defeat, and the great resources were given away in vain.

What's more, the current Yan Laoxi's control over Shanxi is becoming more and more serious. At the end of 1917, he established his "six policies and three affairs" policy, and promoted it throughout Shanxi, namely: water conservancy, tree planting, sericulture, and smoking ban. , Tianzu, hair cutting, cotton planting, afforestation, animal husbandry and preparation.

In order to carry out the handling of the "six politics and three affairs", Yan set up the "six politics inspection office" as the general management agency, changed his original "political research institute" into a "political investigation institute", and appointed "political observers" "Stationed in various counties to strengthen investigation and reporting.

"Send over" the factory now, without having to wait until the War of Resistance, and whether the middle surname is Yan or Cheng is another matter.

So going around, the construction of a synthetic ammonia factory still has to be in the rear of Sichuan.

After introducing Tesla, Fan Xudong, and Jiang Jiangzuo into the meeting room, Cheng Nuo pushed the mobile blackboard over and explained while deducing:
"Here, the coal gasification process I recommend is the lump coal fixed bed intermittent gasification method. Typical large-scale coal gasification processes mainly include crushed coal fixed bed pressurized gasification process, coal water slurry pressurized gasification process and pulverized coal gasification process. Pressurized gasification process, etc.

The general process can be decomposed into fixed-layer gas generator-desulfurization-transformation-decarbonization-refining-compression-synthesis-ammonia, and the participation of air, steam, coal and other raw materials is required successively in the middle, but I have made a hasty calculation After a while, this process requires high coal types and consumes a lot of energy.

Therefore, we must choose an area rich in coal resources. Here I recommend Sichuan first. "

As soon as the words fell, Jiang Jiangzuo, as Cheng Nuo's hardcore, agreed without hesitation: "I agree with both hands. Sichuan has a long history of coal mining. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, sent people to mine coal in Sichuan. During the Tang and Song Dynasties , Coal mining in Sichuan has become quite common.

In the Qing Dynasty, the scope of coal mining in Sichuan was further expanded. Now we are no longer like Tianjin soda, starting from scratch, and the difficulty is greatly reduced. "

Fan Xudong hesitated: "I have reservations about building a factory in Sichuan."

Cheng Nuoyang raised his eyebrows: "Xudong, tell me your point of view."

Fan Xudong cleared his throat and replied: "I have nothing to say about coal resources, but you also have to consider other things, especially in terms of the overall industrial base. Sichuan is far inferior to Zhili. Tianjin is located in Haikou, which is a place for trade. , has a complete railway network, and the transportation of materials in the Zhili area is quite convenient.

At the same time, when Yuan Xiangcheng was in power, he implemented the "Beiyang New Deal", established a series of factories in Tianjin and the surrounding hinterland, and vigorously developed the national industry. The core industry is the manufacturing industry. Not many places can compare.

Now we have just started to improve in Tianjin, but because the coal is about to be transferred to the industrial desert, can it be considered that we have abandoned the light and turned to the dark, and from the calculation of industrial costs, coal is cheap, but when other costs are added together, that is terrible. It's much higher. "

As soon as these words came out, even Cheng Nuo was a little moved.

If it weren't for his foresight, he would definitely not be willing to just move.

But knowing the historical process behind it, I had to choose to do so, and the real reason for it cannot be directly told to everyone.

After thinking for a while, Cheng Nuo said slowly: "In terms of transportation, the country of Sichuan Province is not bad. For example, Chongqing is located at the confluence of the Yangtze River and Jialing River. It is a water and land hub connecting the southwest region to the east coast. Although the match industry first emerged,

But the textile industry, mining industry, machinery, tanning, papermaking and other industries are not bad, and now there are 52 industrial and mining enterprises, the most in the country, and they have begun to have the economic functions of a modern city.

Although Tianjin has stronger industrial manufacturing capacity, most of them are concentrated in light industry, and the most is flour manufacturing. This does not help us to synthesize ammonia at all. Don't forget that we basically started from a poor and poor situation when we made alkali. "

As soon as this remark came out, Fan Xudong fell silent immediately.

Cheng Nuo continued: "In addition, in the production process of synthetic ammonia, every process is directly or indirectly related to water. For example, water is converted into steam in the boiler, and steam directly participates in the reaction (gas production process, transformation process) Or as a heat source to heat the reactants.

Another example is that water is used as a heating medium or cooling medium, or as a solvent for the preparation of coal water slurry, desulfurization solution, decarbonization solution, etc.

Although Tianjin has the Haihe River, in terms of water resources, compared with Sichuan, you can think that they lack everything, but only in terms of water resources, at least they are worse than Tianjin. "

Tesla on the side suddenly said: "I am not very interested in the synthetic ammonia you mentioned, but when it comes to the water resources in Sichuan, I very much agree, especially if the local drop is relatively large, this potential energy can be collected and used for hydropower generation. .”

Cheng Nuo snapped his fingers and said with a smile: "That's what it means. In the early stage, we can try to use electrolysis to produce hydrogen to produce synthetic ammonia, and Birkeland and Ed have already adopted the method of electric discharge in the air to fix nitrogen."

Seeing that Cheng Nuo had decided to go to Sichuan to synthesize ammonia, Fan Xudong also knew that it was not easy to change, and began to think seriously about the possibility of its electrolysis: "Although the high-temperature method you just mentioned has a high possibility, if we really have With a large amount of power resources, the discharge method is also a good idea.”

Cheng Nuo nodded: "In fact, not only the discharge method, but also the high temperature method also requires a lot of electricity, such as using electricity to desalinate, etc. For example, electric heating of activated carbon requires the participation of electric heaters, etc. The various equipment in the middle also requires the addition of motors. If there is little or no electricity, it is absolutely impossible.”

Sending Tesla to Sichuan not only properly accommodated him, but also meant using local resources for hydropower generation.

One of Tesla's few bright moments is that after he won the AC power dispute, Tesla owned the patent right for AC power and ushered in an outstanding century project created by him - the world's first installed capacity building. The 3.7-kilowatt Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station.

A total of 9 patented inventions of Tesla were used in this project.The huge energy of Niagara Falls was not only successfully converted into electrical energy, but also used high-voltage electricity to realize long-distance power supply, which solved the problem of long-distance power supply for the Niagara Hydropower Station.

This led to large-scale machine production and opened the era of large-scale application of modern electric power.The power station is still one of the world famous hydropower stations.

Using AC high-voltage 22 kV three-phase transmission line to transmit to the industrial city of Buffalo (Buffalo) 40 kilometers away, becoming the first large-scale AC long-distance power supply city in North America.

Putting it here is also useful.

Standing up, Cheng Nuo looked at everyone and said solemnly: "Our journey is a sea of ​​stars. In addition to curium sulfate, we may also study sodium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, lime nitrogen, ammonium nitrate, ammonium chloride, and calcium nitrate. , Ruyna saltpeter, urea, urea calcium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate and other chemical nitrogen fertilizers.

Culium sulfate is not our end, but our starting point. "

……

In this way, after Cheng Nuo's various explanations, it was finally decided to set up the synthetic ammonia factory in Sichuan. The funds for the construction of the factory, in addition to Cheng Nuo's investment in part of the profits earned from the electric fan factory, match factory, and alkali factory, ensured the controlling stake in the factory. .

A small part of the remaining goes to the society for public fundraising.

As for the remaining part, it was used to clear up the relationship between the local warlords, which Fan Xudong was good at.

Right now, the southwestern provinces are not at peace, and the law enforcement conferences of the provinces have been established in Guangzhou.Cen Chunxuan was elected as the chief representative of the peace talks, Wu Tingfang was the chief representative of foreign affairs, Tang Shaoyi was the chief financial representative, and Tang Jiyao, Cheng Biguang and Lu Rongting were the chief military representatives.

Claiming to the outside world that they will jointly conduct joint diplomacy and sign contracts; supervise common finances, handle domestic and foreign public debt collection; coordinate armaments, plan operations, and decide on armistice talks and events;

Of course, Feng Guozhang was not jealous. He issued an order to attack the Southwest in the name of the President, and dispatched Cao Kun and Zhang Huaizhi to attack Hunan and Hubei. Cao was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the First Route Army and envoy of the two lakes, and Zhang Huaizhi was the commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army. He is also the inspector of Hunan and Jiangxi, and Zhang Jingyao is the commander-in-chief of the former enemy who aided Yue. The war is about to break out.

Right now the country is in a three-legged situation, but it is a pity that the local people suffer.

Of course, when Cheng Nuo entered Sichuan this time, besides thinking about fishing in troubled waters, he also wanted to invest in Tang Jiyao in advance. The founder and leader of the Yunnan Army, the leader of the Yunnan Warlord, will soon take control of Sichuan.

Arrangements for building a factory were made here, while Cai Yuanpei suddenly came to him over there.

After a few words of politeness, Cai Yuanpei went straight to the topic: "Peking University initiated the organization of the Jinde Association in order to change the social atmosphere by improving people's morality."

Cheng Nuo said with great interest, "Look at the brochure, is there a standard for membership?"

Cai Yuanpei said kindly: "Type A members—do not prostitute, gamble, or marry concubines; Type B members—beyond the top [-] percent, plus [-] percent not to be officials and councilors; Type C members—beyond the top five abstentions, plus no smoking , non-drinking, and non-eating meat are [-]%. Which level are you willing to join?"

Cheng Nuo asked knowingly, "But I heard that Mr. Shou Chang also joined in. I wonder what level he is?"

Cai Yuanpei smiled: "Shou Chang is a Class A member."

Cheng Nuo said with emotion: "We have our own bright and upright personality.
Live a life of truth and simplicity,

Cherish it, cherish it, treasure it, cherish it,
Never toss lightly,
Sacrifice for family and friends,

A slave to vanity and vulgarity.

Mr. Shouchang is indeed a role model for our generation, and there is still a lot to learn from him. "

Cai Yuanpei shook his head with a smile: "You two are really good friends, you still say the same thing in the second half of the sentence."

Cheng Nuo was puzzled: "I don't know what Mr. Shou Chang said?"

After Cai Yuanpei closed his eyes and pondered for a while, he suddenly opened his eyes and imitated Li Dazhao's demeanor and tone: "We followed Mr. De's footsteps and seemed to have done something, but in fact it was just lip service. The value still depends on Mr. Sai.

What I admire the most and is worth learning is Zhiyuan. Not only can I learn from Mr. De, but also lead the way of Mr. Sai. Is this something ordinary people can do? "

After the imitation, Cai Yuanpei still did not forget to ask curiously: "Listen to Shouchang, you have been studying chemical fertilizers, why did you suddenly study this direction?"

After hearing Li Dazhao's approval, Cheng Nuo's first thought was not pride, but shame.

Cheng Nuo was just looking at the world from the shoulders of the times, and it was normal for him to think and act farther than ordinary people.

It is even more difficult for Mr. Li to create an era and lead social and ideological changes, and he is also a kind of Mr. Sai in essence, so there is no need to underestimate himself so much.

But these red/color/thoughts are not good to tell Cai Yuanpei, after all, in the final analysis, it is not the same way to stand with people like them who stand with mud legs.

Fortunately, the latter question was about fertilizers. Cheng Nuo breathed a sigh of relief and said slowly:
"Importing chemical fertilizers has become one of the main expenses of farmers. Every year, a large amount of foreign chemical fertilizers are imported, resulting in money spillover, which is a huge loss to the Chinese economy."

(End of this chapter)