Sponge

Biomaterials Laboratory.

Head of Research Kuinning Mark and Head of Administration Pasteur (Soldier), were also waiting at the doorway for Li Qingye's arrival.

This laboratory was specifically for researching biomaterials. They had recently received a special material from Calagua Island and had almost finished their research on it.

Li Qingye, arriving from the Methanogen Laboratory, finished reading the research report in his hands.

"You've done good work."

Kuinning said excitedly, "Boss, this Sponge you provided is incredible. If it can be mass-produced or synthesized artificially, it might change the current industrial landscape."

The Sponge he was referring to was actually a genetically modified organism.

This genetically modified Sponge had a body composed of an entirely new nanostructure. Li Qingye had combined biology, nanomaterials science, and crystallography to cultivate this brand-new species. He named this special nanostructure—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, transforming them into special crystalline water.

So, what was the use of this Crystal Sponge composed of Crystal Storage Resonance Cavities?

Its utility lay in its ability to compress gases. One cubic meter of Crystal Sponge could hold 460-500 cubic meters of methane or other alkane gases.

The critical pressure for this compression was only 3.7 times atmospheric pressure.

Once gas was compressed into the Crystal Sponge, it formed a relatively stable crystalline state. Even if the ambient temperature reached over a hundred 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, its crystalline stability would rapidly decrease, releasing the stored gas.

This gave the Crystal Sponge the ability to store and release gases at a low cost.

It's important to note that current Liquefied Natural Gas Ships (LNG) are not only extremely expensive to build but also have high operating and maintenance costs.

The liquefied natural gas on LNG ships is liquefied through ultra-low temperatures. During transportation, a constant low temperature (-162 degrees Celsius) must be maintained, making it extremely dangerous.

One cubic meter of liquefied natural gas can be converted into 625 cubic meters of gaseous natural gas.

Whereas, one cubic meter of Crystal Sponge can store 460-500 cubic meters of gaseous methane.

In terms of unit storage volume of gas, liquefied natural gas has a slight edge. However, Crystal Sponge can store gas at ambient temperature and pressure, while liquefied natural gas requires constant low temperatures of -162 degrees Celsius.

This is where the advantage of Crystal Sponge becomes apparent.

After all, the cost of building an LNG ship is very high. Taking China's Dapeng as an example, its construction cost was as high as 160 million US dollars, capable of transporting 147,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas at once.

In contrast, a Panamax Transport Ship with a capacity of 4,500 standard containers costs only around 70 million US dollars.

Typically, a standard container has a volume of 24-26 cubic meters. 4,500 standard containers would amount to 108,000-117,000 cubic meters.

Furthermore, LNG ships face another problem. Because the liquefied natural gas they transport is different from ordinary cargo, it requires specialized port loading, unloading, and storage facilities.

If Crystal Sponge were used as a storage container, there would be no need for overly complex specialized ports, and other container ships could also be modified.

However, Li Qingye was not aiming too high at this stage. Homo sapiens Company had no plans to enter the natural gas transportation industry for now, mainly because the industry was too complex and could easily attract the attention of the five major powers.

Moreover, the production of Crystal Sponge was insufficient. Even with growth hormones and nutrient solutions, a one-mu sea farm could only produce about 200-300 cubic meters of Crystal Sponge annually.

In the short term, it could only be supplied for internal use by Homo sapiens Company.

Currently, Homo sapiens Company needed to build methane factories that required Crystal Sponge manufacturing storage containers, which would save considerable costs.

Gas methane storage tanks at ambient temperature and pressure occupied a large ground area and were also not cheap.

As for liquefied natural gas storage tanks, they were even more so. With the accompanying low-temperature maintenance equipment, gasification equipment, and pipelines, it was obvious they were expensive and very dangerous. Any operational error could lead to the entire factory exploding.

Regarding Crystal Sponge storage tanks, according to research by Kuinning and others from the production process department.

To manufacture a Crystal Sponge storage tank, in addition to the core material, Crystal Sponge, it would require vibration absorption and insulation layers, flame-retardant steel shells, sound wave generators, electrical control systems, pressurized injection pumps, one-way gas valves, safety valves, alarms, and pipelines.

The technical difficulty of these components was not high. The only technically challenging aspect was actually the production and deep processing of Crystal Sponge.

In reality, Li Qingye's primary motivation for developing these things was not to make money, but for energy security.

Luzon was a region with scarce energy resources.

It only had a few small coal mines and natural gas mines, with no oil fields worth exploiting.

Currently, the thermal power plants of its subsidiary, Jade Energy, had to import coal from Java and Australia. Relying on imports for energy was extremely unreliable.

Since natural energy mineral resources were scarce, Li Qingye decided to take a different approach and use 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 Genetically Modified Methanogen had an efficiency of producing methane from decomposing organic matter that was about 2.7 times higher than current natural strains. Moreover, it did not require other auxiliary bacterial strains; the Genetically Modified Methanogen could complete the decomposition of organic matter on its own.

The reason for such a significant increase in efficiency was the shortening of the energy conversion chain and reaction time, avoiding the continuous energy loss that occurs during prolonged, multi-stage conversions.

Genetically Modified Methanogens could directly decompose organic matter, thereby reducing energy waste.

Furthermore, the organic matter that Genetically Modified Methanogens could decompose included not only animal excrement and animal and plant carcasses but also some artificial organic matter, such as the notorious plastic products.

This way, Jade Energy could build waste recycling factories near various cities, then send the biomass waste and plastic products for fermentation and decomposition, thereby reducing pollution and waste while obtaining methane.

Additionally, they could collect industrial waste from surrounding areas, agricultural waste from farms, and manure from livestock farms.

Through this model, regional energy self-sufficiency could basically be achieved.

In case of emergencies, the starch from Sea Grapes produced by the sea farms could also serve as raw material for methane production.

In today's human society, energy is not just about providing electricity and heating; it also involves food security.

Homo sapiens Company aims to become a Mega-corporation that dominates humanity's future, which means it cannot have any weaknesses. Energy holds a crucial position in the entire industrial chain.

Promoting energy self-sufficiency in Luzon is one of Homo sapiens Company's next strategies.

After inspecting these several laboratories, Li Qingye was relatively satisfied with the current progress of each project. Just as he was preparing to return to Calagua Island.

Several messages relayed back from Manila by Chen Jianxiong made him pause.

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