The two intern researchers from the laboratory, dressed in full protective suits and wearing gas masks, entered the production workshop.
They collected ten samples each from the desalination tank, the dehydration tank, and the collection bins.
The technicians in the desalination workshop also took some samples and carried out basic tests in the factory's makeshift lab.
When everyone received the preliminary test results, they found that after desalination with the new process, the salt content in both the wet waste and the dehydrated waste was almost zero.
Unprocessed kitchen waste contained a fair amount of salt, generally between 0.08% and 0.2%. In other words, one ton of kitchen waste contained approximately 0.8 to 2 kilograms of salt.
That might not seem like much, but one ton of kitchen waste could be converted into 0.2 to 0.3 tons of relatively dry organic fertilizer. The fertilizer would still contain those 0.8 to 2 kilograms of salt.
This meant the salt content was effectively concentrated to 0.32%–1%.
Livestock and poultry manure contained even more salt, about 0.97%. Once dried and concentrated, that figure would rise to around 3.8%.
Without desalination, every ton of organic fertilizer was expected to contain 20 to 30 kilograms of salt. Fertilizer with such a high salt content posed serious risks to crops, soil, and waterways.
This was a common problem with small-scale organic fertilizer producers. In the hot, rainy south, using such fertilizer could at worst burn crops.
But in the north, where rainfall was low and rainwater could not wash the salt out of the soil, the result was soil salinization.
"Looks like it worked." Huang Xiuyuan turned to Huang Guotong. "How much do you estimate we can cut desalination costs?"
Huang Guotong already had an answer ready. He quickly replied, "Mr. Huang, in day-to-day use, the new process only needs hot water and electricity. I just estimated the power consumption, and we should be able to reduce desalination costs by 70 to 80 percent."
For Suiren Company, which generated its own power, using electricity meant even lower costs.
Huang Xiuyuan continued, "The Phase Three buildings should be finished by now, right?"
"They're done. They passed inspection in the middle of this month, but we haven't put them to use yet." Huang Guotong had to admire the foresight in the factory's planning.
He had previously filed a report asking them to put the Phase Three project on hold, since the Phase One and Phase Two buildings still had 50 to 60 percent spare capacity for handling the city's waste, liquefied gas, and organic fertilizer production.
"Then convert the Phase Three buildings into an advanced recycling plant." Huang Xiuyuan turned to Du Jinhua and instructed him:
"Jinhua, have your engineering team work closely with the factory. I want comprehensive recycling of industrial wastewater and solid waste."
Du Jinhua answered confidently at once. "You can count on us, Mr. Huang. We'll give it everything we've got."
With Hexa-conical Spherical Oxygen, rapid filtration equipment made with Heptagonal Silicon Oxide and Graphene Film, and Nitrogen-16 High-Efficiency Catalyst, almost every kind of waste could be recycled efficiently and cheaply, with the exception of nuclear waste.
This approach to recycling was nearly perfect. It would also become widely adopted after 2043, greatly reducing humanity's exploitation of natural resources while effectively curbing waste and pollution.
The Phase Three area of the Guizhuling factory.
Huang Xiuyuan and Du Jinhua's engineering team took part in designing the advanced recycling workshop. Some of its design plans were adapted from the desalination workshop.
During tests of the new process in the desalination workshop, they discovered a few more minor issues. For example, when the solution was electrified, small amounts of hydrogen and oxygen were produced through electrolysis.
If left unchecked, the hydrogen and oxygen concentrations in the workshop would gradually build up over repeated reactions, potentially causing a hydrogen explosion.
The solution was to send the hydrogen to the gas-fired generators and burn it to produce electricity. This would reduce the danger while recovering some of the energy.
The advanced recycling workshop continued to take shape through trial and error.
After round upon round of adjustments, the recycling workshops were divided into two main types: workshops for recovering water-soluble pollutants and workshops for recovering insoluble pollutants.
Then, based on the temperatures required for the extraction reactions, they designed the order in which the elements would be recovered.
In Meilong Town, Haifeng County.
Two intern researchers and two sewage-suction trucks converted from septic-tank pump trucks were working beside a river. They were pumping water from the river while discharging filtered, purified water back into it.
Tian Xin, who had graduated that year, looked at the river before her, her face paling. "The pollution is awful."
Her colleague, Wang Kainan, shrugged helplessly. "That's normal. Pollution from these small electroplating factories is almost impossible to avoid."
On both sides of the river stood large and small factories that processed gold and silver jewelry, worked with hardware, and did electroplating. The wastewater from these small factories was discharged almost directly into the river. Even when it was treated, it usually just underwent basic filtration and sedimentation.
The jewelry-processing industry in Meilong Town, the gem-processing industry in Ketang Town, and the garment industry in Gongping Town were all pillars of the local economy.
The jewelry industry in Meilong Town and the gem-processing industry in Ketang Town were especially renowned throughout the country.
But while jewelry and gem processing brought economic benefits, they also caused enormous pollution.
The pollution had surpassed the environment's capacity to clean itself.
Consider the rivers in the USA. Why had Asian carp become an invasive scourge after being introduced, while locals rarely ate them? It wasn't because they tasted bad, or because they had too many bones. The very real problem was that the fish contained excessive levels of heavy metals.
Why were the heavy metal levels in Asian carp so high?
Because factories had discharged large amounts of wastewater into those rivers in the past, causing pollutants to accumulate in the riverbeds, the silt, and the surrounding plants and animals.
Even after surface-level restoration, those rivers in the USA might look "picturesque," but large amounts of pollutants still remained.
Take the main source of pollution in Meilong Town: electroplating wastewater.
Electroplating wastewater had a very complex composition. In addition to wastewater containing cyanide (CN-) and acidic or alkaline wastewater, heavy-metal wastewater was one of the most potentially hazardous types produced by the electroplating industry.
Depending on the heavy metals it contained, this wastewater could generally be classified as chromium (Cr)-bearing wastewater, nickel (Ni)-bearing wastewater, cadmium (Cd)-bearing wastewater, copper (Cu)-bearing wastewater, zinc (Zn)-bearing wastewater, gold (Au)-bearing wastewater, silver (Ag)-bearing wastewater, and so on.
This wastewater was highly toxic. Its effects might not be apparent in the human body right away, but over time, humans at the top of the food chain would inevitably accumulate these heavy metals in their bodies.
Tian Xin had grown up in a city. Suiren Company was her first proper job after graduating, and this was the first time she had witnessed the severe pollution in an underdeveloped region.
Sacrificing the environment and the health of local people just to drive mechanical growth in industrial output was a short-sighted path that doomed future generations.
"Once you've seen enough, you won't be surprised or disgusted anymore." Wang Kainan glanced at the purified water flowing out.
Suddenly, Tian Xin blurted out, "I just realized that I might be doing something truly great."
Wang Kainan scooped up a handful of purified water and smiled. "Yeah. It really is a great enterprise."
"Let's get to work." Tian Xin encouraged herself.
The two of them collected samples of the soil, silt, plants, and insects around the river.
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