Fideli from the Ministry of Science and Technology said, "Professor Robben, the alkali-making process you mentioned looks good, but I still have to interrupt this fantasy. Since the raw material of this alkali-making process comes from trona ore, it means that this mineral has great uncertainty."
"Just like coal, not every area is plentiful, and if trona reserves are not plentiful in East Africa, that will obviously be very constrained."
Robben: "Director Fideli, I am somewhat certain about this. East Africa does not pay much attention to the exploration of trona ores. After all, in the past, it was limited by the differences in technology and alkali production processes, resulting in a general lack of understanding and awareness of trona ores in society."
"In my past field scientific research operations, I found that East Africa is relatively rich in trona minerals, especially in East African Rift Valley. Many lakes contain trona minerals."
"The most noteworthy among them is Lake Magadi, which is less than 80 kilometers southwest of Nairobi. I dare to say with certainty to the Ministry of Science and Technology that this lake is very rich in trona minerals. If it is effectively developed, it can completely solve the current national demand for soda ash."
"This trona mine has advantages in terms of distance and resource reserves in terms of development, and the refining cost is quite low and the purity is relatively high. And according to the situation of Lake Magadi, there should be many similar resource distributions in East African Rift Valley."
As the largest scar on the earth, East African scientists are very enthusiastic about the research of East African Rift Valley. Even if they are not geologists, there are many people who come to East African Rift Valley to look for materials, especially some zoologists and botanists. Therefore, it is not surprising that Robben can discover Lake Magadi's trona resources.
What's more, Lake Magadi is so close to Nairobi. The distance of 80 kilometers is equivalent to First Town to Bagamoyo city.
Moreover, Lake Magadi is rather peculiar. This lake is bright pink, which is very easy to attract people's attention. After all, pink lakes are rare, and the weird color also shows that the chemical content in Lake Magadi is very high.
Robben continued, "Nairobi's geology professor Ankapov and I conducted in-depth research on 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 pouring into the lake."
"The hot water contains a large amount of alkaline substances, making the lake water a dense sodium carbonate brine. The lake bottom is deposited with trona, which is several meters thick. Its high concentration of salt makes it impossible for any aquatic life to survive in the lake. The underground spring water gushes out from the agglomerated alkali shell, 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 trona ore and other substances. In the past, this was a place used by indigenous people to refine table salt, but it was later abandoned. The lake surface of Lake Magadi is close to about 80 square kilometers. During the dry season, the lake evaporates rapidly, and the alkali substances accumulated at the bottom of the lake will be exposed."
"So in Lake Magadi, two resources, salt and soda ash, can be developed at the same time. It is still a rare open-pit mine in the dry season. The combination of these factors makes the cost of resource development 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 Northern Railway. It only needs a road to continuously transport its resources."
This makes the staff of the Ministry of Science and Technology have a clearer understanding of the Lake Magadi alkali ore mentioned by Robben.
In fact, as Robben said, the development of Lake Magadi already existed before the founding of East Africa. The local indigenous people would use the lake to refine coarse salt. This situation lasted for hundreds of years, but then the arrival of East African colonizers interrupted this process.
Fideli said, "Professor Robben, we are still undecided about your natural alkali method. We will send more professional personnel to Lake Magadi to conduct systematic survey work, and finally determine whether this alkali production process is worth promoting."
Robben: "Of course, without sufficient raw materials, the trona method is like a skillful woman unable to make a meal without rice. However, I believe that after you fully investigate Lake Magadi, you will definitely be interested in the trona method."
In the previous life, the trona method was the mainstream alkali production process in countries such as United States and Turkey, especially United States. Its trona ore reserves are as high as more than 60 billion and cannot be fully developed. It is estimated that the trona ore resources in East Africa will be difficult to surpass United States in a short time.
However, East Africa is also lucky. Lake Magadi itself is the largest trona mine in Africa, and it has the right time, location, and people. It is easy to develop, has low refining costs, has large reserves, and is close to East African cities and transportation. It would be East Africa's fault not to exploit such a resource.
Soon this matter also reached Ernst's desk. Ernst attached great importance to the alkali making industry. In addition to the importance of soda ash itself, the alkali making industry occupied a certain space in previous history textbooks. The famous Hou's process and its founder Hou Debang both left a deep impression on Ernst.
The full name of Hou's process is Hou's Hou's process. It can be said that Far East Empire is a rare benchmark in the chemical industry in modern times.
Of course, Hou's process has not been born at this stage. Even if Hou's process was born in the previous life, it was already close to the 1940s. This is the time when Solvay process is becoming popular.
"Your Highness, should this trona method be fully implemented?" Minister of Science and Technology Kaimens asked.
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 Leblanc process cannot be completely replaced. After all, in addition to alkali production, it can also produce chlorine, which can be used to purify water sources or be used in the chemical industry and disinfectants."
"Therefore, there is no need to choose one of the three methods between trona method and Solvay process, including Leblanc process. We can continue to improve related processes and can determine unexpected effects, not just for soda ash."
"And currently Leblanc process occupies the mainstream position in my country's alkali production 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 production industry will build on this foundation and popularize both the trona method and the Solvay process process."
"And in my opinion, Solvay process also has a lot of room for improvement to continue to improve its resource utilization, and these tasks require the efforts of East African researchers and our companies. In the alkali production industry, you must cooperate with Ministry of Industry and state-owned enterprises to continuously improve our country's alkali production industry."
Overall, the next task of the East African industry department is to simultaneously develop the Solvay process and trona methods to replace the current Leblanc process and become the mainstream of East African alkali industry.
The main reason is the low output of Leblanc process. With the development of industry, its production capacity is increasingly unable to keep up. It is not suitable to only develop the trona method. After all, East Africa's trona ore resources are relatively rich, but they are not as rich as those of United States in the previous life. At the level of, if East Africa also has 60 billion tons of trona ore reserves, then East African alkali industry would have no problem waiting to die. However, the current specific data on trona reserves in East Africa is not clear, which can easily cause anxiety.
Just like oil in previous generations, humans can always find new oil resources through technological progress and always underestimate the earth's oil reserves, but this does not prevent most countries in the world from experiencing oil anxiety.
Therefore, East Africa must develop both Solvay process and trona methods at the same time. At present, Solvay process in East African alkali industry has just started. The development of trona method is a useful supplement for East African industry and the mining industry.