Chapter 39: Chapter 39: The Sponge
The Biomaterials Laboratory.
Quinine Mark, the head of research, and Pasteur, the head of administration (a Soldier), were waiting at the entrance for Li Qingye’s arrival.
This lab was dedicated to researching biomaterials. Some time ago, they had received a special material sent from Kalaqua Island, and their research on it was now more or less complete.
Li Qingye, who had just come from the methanogen lab, finished reading the research report in his hands.
"You’ve done well."
Quinine said excitedly, "Boss, this sponge you provided is simply amazing! If it can be mass-produced or artificially synthesized, it could potentially change the current industrial landscape."
The sponge he was talking about was, in fact, a genetically recombinant organism.
The body of this transgenic sponge was composed of a completely new nanostructure. It was a brand-new species cultivated by Li Qingye, combining biology, nanomaterials science, and crystallography. He named this special nanostructure the "Crystal Storage Resonance Cavity."
The function of the Crystal Storage Resonance Cavity was to use a certain amount of pressure to force water and gas into its nanostructure, forming a special kind of crystalline water.
So, what was the purpose of the Crystal Sponge, composed of these Crystal Storage Resonance Cavities?
Its main use lay in its ability to absorb gas under pressure. One cubic meter of Crystal Sponge could absorb 460 to 500 cubic meters of methane or other alkane gases.
And the critical compression pressure was only 3.7 times atmospheric pressure.
Once the gas was forced into the Crystal Sponge, it would form a relatively stable unit cell state. Even if the ambient temperature reached hundreds of degrees Celsius, the stored gas would not be released. The critical release temperature was above 148 degrees Celsius.
However, the Crystal Storage Resonance Cavity had another characteristic: at a specific resonant frequency, the stability of its unit cells would rapidly decrease, releasing the stored gas.
This gave the Crystal Sponge the ability to store and release gas at a low cost.
It was important to note that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers currently on the market were not only extremely expensive to build, but also had high operating and maintenance costs.
The liquefied natural gas on these carriers was created by liquefying methane gas at ultra-low temperatures. During transport, a constant low temperature of -162 degrees Celsius had to be maintained, which was also extremely dangerous.
One cubic meter of liquefied natural gas can be converted into 625 cubic meters of gaseous natural gas.
In contrast, one cubic meter of Crystal Sponge could store 460 to 500 cubic meters of gaseous methane.
In terms of storage volume per unit, liquefied natural gas had a slight edge. However, the Crystal Sponge could store gas at room temperature and pressure, whereas liquefied natural gas had to be constantly maintained at a low temperature of -162 degrees Celsius.
This was where the advantage of the Crystal Sponge became clear.
After all, the cost of building an LNG carrier was very high. Take Huaguo’s Dapeng Sun for example; it cost a staggering 160 million US dollars and could transport 147,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas at once.
In comparison, a Panamax transport ship with a capacity of 4,500 standard containers costs only about 70 million US dollars.
A standard container typically has a volume of 24 to 26 cubic meters, so 4,500 standard containers would be 108,000 to 117,000 cubic meters.
Furthermore, LNG carriers faced another problem: since the liquefied natural gas they transported was not ordinary cargo, it required specialized port facilities for loading, unloading, and storage.
If the Crystal Sponge was used as the storage container, such complex, specialized ports would not be necessary. At the same time, other container ships could be modified for transport.
However, Li Qingye was not getting ahead of himself for the time being. Homo Sapiens Company had no plans to enter the natural gas shipping industry at this stage, mainly because the waters were too deep, and it would easily attract the attention of the five big hooligans.
Moreover, the production of Crystal Sponge was insufficient. Even with growth hormones and nutrient solutions, one mu of Haitian could only produce about 200 to 300 cubic meters of Crystal Sponge annually.
In the short term, it could only be supplied for internal use within Homo Sapiens Company.
Homo Sapiens Company now needed to build a batch of methane factories, which required storage containers made from Crystal Sponge. This would save a considerable amount of cost.
Standard gaseous Methane Storage Tanks, which operate at room temperature and pressure, take up a huge amount of land and are also quite costly.
As for liquefied natural gas storage tanks, that was another story entirely. With all the associated cryogenic maintenance equipment, vaporization units, and transport pipelines, it was obvious they were expensive. They were also extremely dangerous; a single operational error could send the entire factory sky-high.
Regarding the Crystal Sponge storage tanks, according to the research by Quinine’s team and the production technology department:
Manufacturing one such tank, in addition to the core material of the Crystal Sponge, would also require a vibration absorption and insulation layer, a flame-retardant steel shell, a sonic wave generator, an electronic control system, a pressurized injection pump, a one-way gas valve, a safety valve, an alarm, and piping.
The technical difficulty of these components was not high. The only part that required real technical expertise was the production and advanced processing of the Crystal Sponge itself.
In reality, Li Qingye’s main purpose in developing these technologies was not to make money, but to ensure energy security.
Luzon was a place with scarce energy resources.
It only had a few small coal and natural gas mines within its territory, with no oil fields worth exploiting.
Currently, the thermal power plants of its subsidiary, Jade Energy, had to import all their steam coal from Java and Australia. Relying solely on imports for energy was extremely unreliable.
Since natural energy mineral resources were scarce, Li Qingye decided to take a different path: using biogas as the core energy source.
As for whether biogas could meet Luzon’s needs, Li Qingye, with his mastery of biotechnology, was very confident.
The recently developed transgenic methanogens had an efficiency of decomposing organic matter to produce methane that was about 2.7 times higher than that of current natural strains. Furthermore, they didn’t require other auxiliary bacteria; the transgenic methanogens could complete the decomposition of organic matter on their own.
The reason for this significant increase in efficiency was the shortening of the energy conversion chain and reaction time, which prevented the continuous decrease in energy that occurs during long, multi-step conversion processes.
The transgenic methanogens could directly decompose organic matter, which reduced energy waste.
Moreover, the organic matter that the transgenic methanogens could decompose was not limited to animal waste and the remains of plants and animals; it also included some man-made organic materials, such as the infamous plastic products.
This way, Jade Energy could build waste recycling plants near various cities. The biomass waste and plastic products from these plants could then be sent for fermentation and decomposition, which would not only reduce pollution and waste but also produce methane.
They could also collect industrial waste from surrounding areas, crop residues from farms, and manure from livestock operations.
Through this model, they could basically achieve regional energy self-sufficiency.
In an emergency, the Kirin vegetable starch produced by Haitian could also be used as a raw material for methane production.
In modern human society, energy was not just about providing electricity and heat; it was also linked to food security.
’If Homo Sapiens Company is to become a mega-corporation that will dominate humanity’s future, it cannot afford to have any weaknesses. Energy holds a vital position in the entire industrial chain.’
Promoting energy independence in Luzon was one of Homo Sapiens Company’s upcoming strategies.
After inspecting these few labs, Li Qingye was relatively satisfied with the current progress of each project. Just as he was preparing to return to Kalaqua Island...
Several pieces of news from Chen Jianxiong in Manila made him stop in his tracks.
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