The southeast coast of Qilu Province, near Rizhao Port.
The staff of the power grid are busy laying an ultra-high voltage line, and in the mountainous area to the west of the construction site is a medium-sized thermal (nuclear) power station that has just been established.
Anyway, all nuclear fusion power plants are called thermal power plants to the outside world.
On the east coast of the construction site, there is a huge comprehensive factory. A medium-sized nuclear power plant is specially equipped for this factory, which shows the hugeness of this factory.
Inside the factory laboratory.
Yang Bai, the chief technical researcher of the rock-making laboratory of the Sisi Society Materials Research Institute, is leading a group of researchers to conduct experiments.
A pool 50 meters long, 20 meters deep, has been filled with 50,000 cubic meters of seawater pumped from the Yellow Sea.
Yang Bai took the tablet and ordered to the assistant on the side: "A Dong, insert the sodium chloride adsorption box."
"Received." Lin Dong, whose skin was tanned, picked up the remote control and operated a box above the pool, which was connected to a robotic arm.
Inside the box are hollow pipes, which look like an enlarged version of a car condenser, with a length and width of about 3 meters and a height of 5 meters.
The robotic arm slowly inserts the box into the seawater pool.
Immediately, Lin Dong pressed the switch, and bursts of current flowed into the box, and the seawater in the seawater pool began to react subtly.
The sodium chloride in the seawater is attracted by the catalyst and current in the box, and the sodium chloride quickly adheres to the hollow pipe.
Just like snowflakes falling on a hollow pipe, sodium chloride crystals are generated rapidly. In less than three minutes, the sodium chloride component in the seawater is absorbed by the box.
Lin Dong pressed another switch, and then the box left the seawater pool and moved sideways in mid-air until the box and the robotic arm moved together into a workshop on one side.
Only then did Lin Dong press the pause button. There was a bucket in the workshop, and another robotic arm inserted a row of solid pipes directly into the hollow pipes of the box.
The crystallized salt attached to the hollow pipe is directly squeezed out by the solid pipe and falls into the bucket below.
Yang Bai stood next to the seawater pool, took out the salinity meter from the tool cart on one side, and reached out to dip the salinity meter into the sea water.
[Salinity: 0.37 mg/L]
I shook the salinity meter casually and recorded the value on the flat plate.
In addition to water, salt compounds account for 99% of seawater. In other words, seawater desalination mainly removes salt compounds.
There are six main types of salts in seawater, namely: sodium chloride (27.213 g/L), magnesium chloride (3.807 g/L), calcium carbonate (0.123 g/L), magnesium sulfate (1.658 g/L), sulfate
"Xiao Ou, please check the catalyst loss rate of the sodium chloride adsorption box." Yang Bai ordered.
"Okay." Ou Simin carried the sampler to the sodium chloride adsorption box.
Lin Dong continued to operate the magnesium chloride adsorption box, calcium carbonate adsorption box, magnesium sulfate adsorption box, calcium sulfate adsorption box, and magnesium bromide adsorption box.
These inorganic salts continue to be adsorbed into the seawater pool.
After more than half an hour, the water in the seawater pool has become clearer, and 99% of the salts in the solvent have been absorbed, leaving only a very small proportion.
However, Yang Bai was not too happy because the catalyst loss rate of the magnesium sulfate adsorption box, calcium sulfate adsorption box, and magnesium bromide adsorption box did not meet expectations.
Among them, the catalyst in the magnesium bromide adsorption box is not only the most expensive, but also has a high loss rate. On average, if it adsorbs 12 pools of seawater, the magnesium bromide crystallization catalyst will lose more than 86%.
Compared with the sodium chloride crystallization catalyst that can be replaced at one time, absorbs 1,300 pools of seawater, and is cheap to make, the two are simply different.
He held his tablet and walked towards the two seawater pools next door, which are the metal adsorption area and the organic matter removal area.
"Ah Chao! What are you going to do?"
Yu Hanchao, who was wearing protective clothing, took off his mask as he walked and replied: "It's okay. The adsorption efficiency of gold and silver is quite high, but the adsorption efficiency of uranium is not good."
Yang Bai looked at Yu Hanchao's data through the tablet, and there were not many surprises: "The efficiency of the uranium adsorption box can be gradually improved, and we are not in a hurry."
"Didn't it say that our desalination water plant will be put into use by the end of this year?" Yu Hanchao asked in surprise.
Yang Bai rolled his eyes: "Are you confused by your experiments? These trace elements do not affect the production of desalinated water."
These trace elements exist in large amounts in liquid water. Generally, it is not a thankless task to remove these trace elements from the tap water we use.
Unless there are some excessive trace elements that are harmful to the human body, such as mercury and lead, two elements that are of special concern.
Otherwise, the waterworks will be too busy to remove trace elements such as gold, silver, copper, and iron, unless there is a serious exceedance of the standard, but the trace elements in seawater generally do not exceed the standard.
The trace elements that do not exceed the standard are beneficial to the human body for drinking. If they are removed, it will become pure water, but it cannot be drunk for a long time.
Yang Bai and Yu Hanchao walked into the workshop next door together. In one bucket, the bottom was covered with shining golden metal, and the bottom of the other bucket was covered with shining silver.
Yu Hanchao raised the bucket, opened the bulkhead on one side, and gently swept the gold sand at the bottom into the bucket with a broom.
"All the gold adsorbed these days is here"
"No, this is the second batch."
Yang Bai grabbed a handful of heavy gold sand. Judging from the color, the purity was equivalent to 999 gold.
"How many are in the first batch?"
Yu Hanchao thought for a while and replied: "2.44 kilograms."
"Where's the silver?"
"There are 17.51 kilograms of silver."
Yang Bai nodded, still very satisfied with this adsorption efficiency.
Extracting gold and other metallic minerals from seawater is one of the future directions in the international mineral field.
Minerals on land have either been opened up or have been discovered; as for the moon and asteroids in outer space, not only is the development technology unsatisfactory, but the cost is also unsuitable.
The seabed and seawater of the ocean have become a new target for mankind.
The Rizhao seawater desalination plant can currently extract sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium carbonate, magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate, and magnesium bromide from seawater on a large scale.
In addition, elements such as potassium, iodine, phosphorus, gold, silver, copper, iron, and aluminum can also be extracted. These are strategic materials to a certain extent.
Yang Bai is currently working on some catalysts.
However, their research and development work does not affect the construction of seawater desalination plants.
On the other side, a water pipeline also starts from Rizhao, extends inland along the railway line, and finally reaches Xi'an City.
In the future, water pipelines can transport desalinated water into inland areas, especially the Guanzhong Plain and Loess Plateau, which are severely short of water.
It will help alleviate local water use, especially the ongoing greenhouse agriculture and coal chemical industry, which require huge water resources.
In addition, excess desalinated water can also be supplied to residents as domestic water.
In fact, with the popularization of nuclear fusion power plants, social production costs are gradually declining. With the support of new technologies and cheap electricity, seawater desalination has become a profitable emerging industry.