Major Breakthrough

This project involves papermaking. There is a unique type of reed along the banks of the Great Fish River that grows very tall. Although its lignin content is not as high as that of wood, it is still higher than that of ordinary grasses.

Furthermore, according to Number One's analysis, the wood pulp made from these long-stemmed reeds is very suitable for making writing paper. Victor had wanted to use these reeds to make paper for a long time, but he never had the time or energy.

Fortunately, Veronica was there. While Veronica was conducting diesel engine manufacturing experiments, Victor directly handed over his entire plan for reed papermaking to Veronica.

Victor originally planned to work with Veronica to advance the project before winter, at least to complete the first batch of paper prototypes. However, Victor suddenly had to participate in the Iron Birch Territory operation, and the matter was left entirely to Veronica to handle.

After returning to Two Rivers Territory, Veronica not only continued her experiments with diesel engines but also began research into papermaking.

Now that the diesel engine project is over, Veronica can focus more on papermaking.

Currently, Veronica has directly used research funds to establish a small paper mill in Riverside Village for research and preliminary production, and has also formed a research team composed entirely of graduates of the Two Rivers Territory's primary education program.

After Veronica arrived at the paper mill, one of the engineers from the research team went directly to her.

"Miss Veronica, our experiment has yielded results!"

Veronica was taken aback. The current research on papermaking is stuck on the preparation of high-purity caustic soda. Caustic soda is an essential raw material for papermaking. The higher the purity of caustic soda, the better the pulp soaking effect, and the higher the quality of the paper produced.

This matter was also marked by Victor as a key task for papermaking, since caustic soda is also an important industrial raw material, and if high-purity caustic soda could be produced, it would greatly help the industrial development of the entire territory.

Unfortunately, the territory's industrial production capacity is currently limited. Otherwise, Victor would have directly used the "Hou's Alkali Production Process" from his previous life to produce caustic soda. After all, he knows the principle and there is Number One who can set up the details of industrial production. However, the actual conditions are not suitable, so he can only use a makeshift method.

Before the Industrial Revolution, caustic soda was produced by collecting natural caustic soda from alkaline lakes or saline-alkali lands, or by burning sodium-rich plants and then extracting the soluble salts from the ash through water leaching, followed by evaporation and crystallization to obtain crude sodium carbonate.

Then, sodium carbonate powder is mixed with lime milk obtained from slaked quicklime, heated to boiling, allowed to stand, filtered to remove calcium carbonate precipitate, and sodium hydroxide solution is obtained. The solution is then evaporated and concentrated, and solid caustic soda is precipitated after cooling.

However, the caustic soda produced in this way has lower purity and contains more impurities, making it less suitable for industrial production, but it is still better than nothing.

Victor also sent people from the Horseshoe Tribe to search for natural alkaline lakes in the Northern Wasteland near the territory, but unfortunately they never found any.

The original plan was to first use a different, traditional method: soaking plants in seawater and then calcining them to obtain wood ash, which would then be used as a substitute for production.

However, Number One offered a suggestion: there are many amazing plants in this world, and there might be one that is extremely rich in sodium, which can be burned to obtain high-purity sodium carbonate.

So after Victor told Veronica about this method, Veronica, after assembling her research team, focused on screening sodium-rich plants in addition to conducting phenotypic studies on long-stemmed reeds.

The engineer in charge of screening sodium-rich plants came to report to her that there had been new progress, meaning that a suitable plant had been found—a sodium-rich plant that could produce high-purity sodium carbonate when burned.

Veronica was overjoyed to hear this. She took off her mask and asked the engineer with a smile, "There's been progress so quickly, Octavia, you're not kidding me!"

Octavia was stunned by the charm that Veronica revealed when she smiled; even as a woman, Veronica's beauty would captivate anyone.

Veronica sighed as she looked at Octavia, who was in a daze. This girl, who was slightly younger than her, was one of her key assistants and students. She was excellent in every way, with outstanding learning ability and work attitude, but she was a little bit infatuated with boys.

Veronica waved her hand at Octavia's face, and Octavia quickly came to her senses. She covered her already flushed face and said, "Miss Veronica, you are so beautiful. No wonder you always wear a mask when you're working. Otherwise, everyone would definitely not be able to concentrate on their work!"

"Alright!" Veronica had no choice but to put her mask back on, rub Octavia's head, and continue, "Tell me what new discovery has made that will allow the experiment to progress."

Octavia, whose head was being rubbed, quickly covered her long black hair to stop Veronica from continuing her torment, "Miss, please spare my hair, I'll take you to see our results!"

Veronica had no choice but to put her hand down. Octavia's hair felt wonderful to the touch, and although she wanted to continue touching it, work was more important.

Veronica followed Octavia to a room where three people were working. Upon seeing Veronica, they quickly bowed.

"Miss Veronica! Hello!" ×3

"Alright! Alright! How many times have I told you, you don't need to bow while working!"

The three were about to bow and apologize again when Veronica quickly stopped them, "Alright, that's enough. Octavia, show me your findings now."

Octavia told the three to continue working, and then led Veronica directly to a table, saying with emotion, "Miss, you are not only our boss, but also our teacher. We all respect you very much. In addition, you are the future lord's wife, so everyone shows you respect. Please don't keep refusing; just accept it obediently!"

"Then why don't you show me more respect? Look at me, I'm blushing. Stop talking nonsense and tell me what happened!"

"Okay, okay, I was wrong, I'll show you right now."

Octavia opened a box and took out a plant sample and a fur-wrapped package.

Octavia held up the plant and said, "Ta-da! This is our discovery, Salt-leaf Tree. This plant is a top-quality sodium-rich plant, and its fruit contains natural salts."

We tried burning its roots, trunk, and bark separately, and obtained large amounts of high-purity sodium carbonate, especially from the roots, which had the highest purity.