Catalyst

Lu Xuedong breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."

He added casually, "As for what it's used for, you'll find out soon enough."

"I'm getting more and more excited to see it." Lu Xuedong was genuinely thrilled. Over the past few days, he'd encountered two entirely new materials. It felt as if a door had opened before him.

More than three hours later, He Wen emerged from the testing area with a preliminary analysis report. A hint of excitement colored his expression.

"Mr. Huang, this all-nitrogen molecule is incredible. Take a look at these reaction data."

Huang Xiuyuan took the report, then passed it to Lu Xuedong. He already knew its contents inside out. "Xuedong, have a look first."

Lu Xuedong didn't stand on ceremony. He immediately began reading it carefully. When he reached the section He Wen had circled in red, an incredulous look appeared on his face.

"It can rapidly promote the decomposition of organic matter? One gram can break down five to ten kilograms of organic matter, producing hydrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane, propane, and other organic alkanes."

He Wen interjected, "Mr. Lu, the decomposition itself isn't all that surprising. The key is how easy the conditions are. You only need to add a solution of this material and expose it to ultraviolet light to trigger a rapid decomposition reaction."

He Wen was so excited he could barely contain himself. He continued without pausing, "More importantly, by adjusting the ultraviolet wavelength, we can direct the reaction to produce the specific substances we need."

"So we can make organic matter decompose into things like carbon monoxide and methane?"

"Yes. And it's not just natural organic matter. Plastics and the like can be broken down too." He Wen's voice trembled slightly.

This catalyst's ability to indiscriminately break down all kinds of materials greatly increased its value.

After all, the vast majority of the oil extracted from underground consisted of organic compounds, and every living thing in the ecosystem contained organic matter.

Meanwhile, the garbage recycling business their company was currently developing dealt with urban household waste, which was rich in organic matter.

Whether it was leftover food or plastic bags, these things were essentially organic matter. What's more, they were a constantly replenished "mineral deposit"—far easier to exploit than underground resources.

At this point, Lu Xuedong suddenly understood. "Looks like you've already worked it all out, Xiuyuan. We recycle household waste and turn it into fuel gas for sale. If the results hold up, we can produce it efficiently and at low cost. The profits should be quite good."

Huang Xiuyuan seized the opportunity to rally them. "Now we need to work together and coordinate closely with the engineering team to quickly develop an efficient, safe production line for fuel gas."

"No problem." Lu Xuedong nodded quickly.

"It's our honor." He Wen was eager to get started too.

First, they worked with the engineering team to modify three Nitrogen-16 Generators. The single-hole model, which had only one silicon oxide hexagon embedded in its Graphene Film, could synthesize 1.2 kilograms of Nitrogen-16 per hour.

The three newly modified Nitrogen-16 Generators were double- and triple-hole models, each capable of producing 2.4 to 3.6 kilograms of Nitrogen-16 per hour.

Together, they could produce around 10 kilograms of Nitrogen-16 an hour.

To keep things simple, they planned to produce only liquefied petroleum gas—a mixture of propane and butane.

Households in the Shanmei region mainly used liquefied petroleum gas. Producing other types of fuel would require people to replace their gas stoves. For cost-conscious customers, replacing their stoves would become an obstacle to getting the product adopted.

After a series of tests, they found that a Nitrogen-16 solution concentration of 5.8% to 6.7% worked best for producing propane and butane. Under ultraviolet light of a specific wavelength, each gram of Nitrogen-16 could catalyze the decomposition of 7.5 to 8.2 kilograms of organic matter.

Kitchen waste usually accounted for around 45% to 55% of household waste by weight. Organic matter typically made up 16% to 21% of the dry weight of kitchen waste.

Breaking down one ton of kitchen waste required 20 to 25 grams of Nitrogen-16. Based on an urban household waste output of 1,000 tons a day, they would need 20 to 25 kilograms of Nitrogen-16 daily.

However, given the current state of the recycling plant, clearing even 500 tons a day would be a good result. Their current Nitrogen-16 production capacity was therefore enough to meet their needs.

Meanwhile, they were also researching the amount of gas produced per unit of waste.

During the recycling plant's trial run, they found that after preliminary sorting, every ton of organic household waste could produce 16 to 25 kilograms of liquefied gas. The yield from kitchen waste was 0.016 to 0.025 tons per ton.

Based on the waste sorting figures from recent days and the proportion of organic matter in kitchen waste, clearing 500 tons of urban waste a day would produce 225 to 275 tons of kitchen waste, enough to make 3.6 to 6.875 tons of liquefied gas.

If they also used plastic products, which accounted for about 10% of the waste, and paper products, which accounted for about 8%, as raw materials for fuel gas, the results would be even better.

Fifty tons of plastic products could yield 25 to 30 tons of liquefied gas, while 40 tons of paper products could yield 10 to 13 tons.

After the gas was extracted, the reaction residue from the kitchen waste, scrap paper, and waste plastic could be used as fertilizer, though it would need further desalination and dewatering.

Huang Xiuyuan, Lu Xuedong, He Wen, Du Jinhua, and the others were now working constantly to refine the production process.

Although kitchen waste produced relatively little fuel gas, urban household waste contained other organic materials too, such as fallen leaves and branches from landscaping, as well as sewage sludge and dried feces.

Fallen leaves and branches had a decent calorific value, at around 16,000 kilojoules per kilogram.

Dried feces, mainly human waste, had a calorific value of around 18,800 kilojoules per kilogram. Feces were usually about 70% water.

The average person excreted around 0.2 kilograms of feces a day, with a dry weight of about 0.06 kilograms.

With a population of 800,000 in urban Shanmei, residents produced 160 tons of feces a day. Drying it would yield 48 tons of dry matter, enough to make around 16 tons of liquefied gas.

If human waste wasn't enough, there was also livestock manure from farms. Its calorific value was about the same as that of human waste.

Pigs and cattle were especially productive, practically manure-producing machines. A pig excreted an average of 1.5 kilograms of manure a day, while a cow produced an astonishing 20 kilograms.

These materials were all "organic mineral deposits"—hidden resources that humanity had failed to make use of in the course of its development.

Taking a look at domestic livestock industry statistics, did anyone know how much livestock manure Huaguo produced in a year?

People usually paid attention only to the prices at the vegetable market, calculating how much pork cost per half-kilogram today and how much beef would cost tomorrow.

But few knew that Huaguo's livestock industry produced an astonishing three billion tons of manure a year, with annual output growing by nearly 100 million tons. It was expected to exceed four billion tons a year by 2018.

If all of it could be recycled, then at a dry-matter content of 30%, it could yield 900 million tons of dry matter and produce around 300 million tons of liquefied gas.

Developing oil fields couldn't be more reliable than that.

After all, a large share of domestic oil had to be kept in reserve, and extraction was both difficult and expensive.

As for foreign oil fields, there were too many uncontrollable factors: local instability, transportation distances, natural disasters, and human calamities. Without connections and huge capital, they weren't even worth considering.

Even if Suiren Company could develop only 10% of the country's biomass resources, it could easily produce 50 million tons of fuel gas a year.

Thanks for all your support, and special thanks to the readers Zhangjian Jianghu Wei Hongchen, Shui Zai Paopao Li De Yu, and Yuming Daoren for their tips! (˙ω˙)