African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1000 Walking on Two Legs

Fedeli from the Ministry of Science and Technology said, "Professor Robben, the alkali production process you mentioned looks good, but I still have to interrupt this fantasy. Since the raw materials of this alkali production process come from natural alkali ore, this means that this mineral has great uncertainty."

"Just like coal, not every region is rich in it. If the reserves of natural soda ore are not abundant in East Africa, then it will obviously be greatly restricted."

Robben: "Director Fedeli, I am somewhat sure about this. East Africa does not attach much importance to the exploration of natural soda ash mines. After all, in the past, due to the differences in technology and alkali production processes, the society generally lacks understanding and knowledge of natural soda ash mines."

"In my past field expeditions, I found that natural soda ash is abundant in East Africa, especially in the East African Rift Valley, where many lakes have natural soda ash."

"The most noteworthy one is Lake Magadi, which is less than 80 kilometers southwest of Nairobi. I can assure the Ministry of Science and Technology that the natural soda ash deposits in this lake are very rich. If they are effectively developed, they can completely meet the current national demand for soda ash."

"This natural soda ash mine has advantages in terms of both distance and resource reserves. The refining cost is quite low and the purity is relatively high. In addition, according to the situation of Lake Magadi, there should be many similar resources distributed in the East African Rift Valley."

As the largest scar on the earth, East African scientists are very enthusiastic about the research on the Great Rift Valley of East Africa. Even if they are not geologists, many people go to the Great Rift Valley of East Africa to look for materials, especially some zoologists and botanists. Therefore, it is not surprising that Robben discovered the natural soda ash resources in Lake Magadi.

What's more, Lake Magadi is so close to Nairobi, and the distance of 80 kilometers is about the same as the distance from the First Town to Bagamoyo City.

Moreover, Lake Magadi is quite peculiar. This lake is a bright pink color, which easily attracts people's attention. After all, pink lakes are rare, and the strange color also shows that the chemical content in Lake Magadi is very high.

Robben continued: "I and Nairobi geology professor Ankapov conducted an in-depth study of this lake for two months. Lake Magadi is located in a semi-desert area. It is an inland lake with several streams of cold and hot water flowing into the lake."

"The hot water contains a large amount of alkaline substances, which makes the lake water a dense sodium carbonate salt water. The bottom of the lake is deposited with a thickness of about several meters of natural alkali. Its high concentration of salt makes it impossible for any aquatic organisms to survive in the lake. Underground springs gush out from the agglomerated alkali crust, dyeing the lake water a bright pink color, which looks like the color of wine from a distance."

"That is to say, Lake Magadi will continuously produce natural alkali minerals and other substances. In the past, this was where the indigenous people used to refine salt, but it was later abandoned. The surface area of ​​Lake Magadi is about 80 square kilometers. During the dry season, the lake evaporates rapidly, and the alkaline substances accumulated on the bottom of the lake will be exposed."

"So at Lake Magadi, we can develop both salt and soda ash resources at the same time. It is also a rare open-pit mine in the dry season. These factors combined make the cost of developing resources in Lake Magadi very low. The only thing that needs to be solved now is transportation and factory construction."

“And this lake is so close to the northern railway that we only need a road to transport its resources out continuously.”

This gave the staff of the Ministry of Science and Technology a clearer understanding of the Magadi Lake alkali mine that Robben mentioned.

In fact, as Robben said, the development of Lake Magadi already existed before the founding of East Africa. The local indigenous people used the lake to extract crude salt. This situation lasted for hundreds of years, but later the arrival of East African colonists interrupted this process.

Fedeli said: "Professor Robben, we are still undecided about your natural alkali method. We will send more professional personnel to Magadi Lake to conduct a systematic survey and finally determine whether this alkali production process is worth promoting."

Robben: "Of course, without sufficient raw materials, the natural soda method is like a cook without rice. But I believe that after you have fully investigated Lake Magadi, you will definitely be interested in the natural soda method." In the past, the natural soda method was the mainstream alkali production process in countries such as the United States and Turkey, especially the United States, which has natural soda ash ore reserves of more than 60 billion, which cannot be fully developed. It is estimated that East Africa's natural soda ash ore resources will hardly surpass the United States in a short time.

However, East Africa is also lucky. Lake Magadi itself is the largest natural soda mine in Africa. It has the right time, place and people. It is easy to develop, has low refining costs, large reserves, and is close to East African cities and transportation. It would be a sin for East Africa if it did not exploit such a resource.

Soon this matter reached Ernst's desk. Ernst attached great importance to the alkali industry. In addition to the importance of soda ash itself, the alkali industry occupied a certain amount of space in the history textbooks of his previous life. The famous combined alkali process and its founder Hou Debang both left a deep impression on Ernst.

The full name of the Combined Alkali Process is Hou's Combined Alkali Process, which can be said to be one of the few chemical industry benchmarks in the modern Far Eastern Empire.

Of course, the combined alkali production method has not yet been invented at this stage. Even if the combined alkali production method in the previous life was invented in the 1940s, it is now the time when the Solvay alkali production method is popular.

"Your Highness, should this natural alkali method be fully implemented?" asked the Minister of Science and Technology, Kemens.

Ernst: "I have always advocated that industry should walk on multiple legs. At present, the new alkali production process has great advantages, but chemical synthesis also has irreplaceable advantages. Even the Lubrun alkali production process cannot be completely replaced. After all, in addition to alkali production, it can also produce chlorine, which can be used to purify water or applied in the chemical industry and disinfectants."

"Therefore, there is no need for us to choose between the natural soda process, the Solvay process, and the Lubrun process. Continuing to improve the relevant processes can determine unexpected results, and it does not only involve the product of soda ash."

"Moreover, the Lüblanc alkali process currently occupies the mainstream position in my country's alkali industry. The change is a change for the entire industry. Of course, from the perspective of cost and utilization efficiency, we must adopt more new processes."

"So next, our country's alkali industry will build on this and popularize both the natural alkali process and the Solvay alkali process."

"And in my opinion, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the Solvay process to continue to improve its resource utilization rate. All this work requires the efforts of East African researchers and our companies. In the alkali industry, you should cooperate with industrial departments and state-owned enterprises to continuously improve our country's alkali industry."

In general, the next task for the East African industrial sector is to develop both the Solvay process and the natural soda process to replace the current Lubrense process and become the mainstream of the East African alkali industry.

The main reason is that the output of the Lubrun process is relatively low. With the development of industry, its production capacity is increasingly unable to keep up. If only the natural soda process is developed, it is not very appropriate. After all, East Africa has relatively rich natural soda ash resources, but not as rich as the United States in the past. If East Africa also has 60 billion tons of natural soda ash reserves, then there will be no problem for the East African alkali industry to just wait for death. However, the specific data on East Africa's natural soda ash reserves is not clear at present, which can easily cause anxiety.

Just like oil in the past, humans can always find new oil resources through technological advances and always underestimate the earth's oil reserves, but this does not prevent most countries in the world from suffering from oil anxiety.

Therefore, East Africa must develop both the Solvay process and the natural soda process at the same time. Currently, the Solvay process has just started in East Africa's alkali industry. The development of the natural soda process is a beneficial supplement to East Africa's industry and mining industry.

(End of this chapter)