A Great Cause

Two intern researchers from the laboratory, wearing full-body protective suits and gas masks, entered the production workshop.

They collected 10 samples each from the desalination tank, the dehydration tank, and the collection bin.

Technicians from the desalination workshop also took several samples to conduct rough testing in the factory's simplified laboratory.

Upon receiving the preliminary test report, everyone discovered that whether it was the aqueous waste or the dehydrated waste, the salt content was almost zero after the new desalination process.

It is important to know that untreated food waste has a significant salt content, generally between 0.08% and 0.2%. This means 1 ton of food waste contains approximately 0.8 to 2 kilograms of salt.

While this amount may seem low, when converted into relatively dry organic fertilizer, 1 ton of food waste yields about 0.2 to 0.3 tons of fertilizer, yet it still retains those 0.8 to 2 kilograms of salt during the conversion process.

This means the salt content is effectively concentrated to between 0.32% and 1%.

As for livestock manure, the salt content is as high as 0.97%, and if it undergoes drying and concentration, it rises again to about 3.8%.

Without desalination, each ton of organic fertilizer would contain an estimated 20 to 30 kilograms of salt. Organic fertilizer with such high salt content poses serious hazards to crops, soil, and water bodies.

This is a common flaw in organic fertilizer from small workshops. If used in the hot and rainy southern regions, the worst consequence is usually burned seedlings.

However, if used in northern regions, the low precipitation prevents rainwater from washing away the soil's salt, resulting in soil salinization.

"It seems we've succeeded." Huang Xiuyuan turned his head: "Guotong, what is your estimate for how much the desalination cost can be reduced?"

Having already prepared his thoughts, Huang Guotong hurriedly replied: "Mr. Huang, in daily operation, the new process mainly consumes electricity aside from heating the water. I just calculated the power consumption, and it is expected that the desalination cost can be reduced by 70% to 80%."

For Suiren Company, which utilizes self-sustained power generation, the use of electricity means even lower costs.

Huang Xiuyuan then asked: "The phase three factory building should be finished, right?"

"It is finished. It passed the completion inspection in the middle of this month, though it hasn't been put to use yet." Huang Guotong felt a sense of admiration for the foresight in the factory's planning.

He had previously submitted a report requesting to postpone the phase three project because the phase one and two buildings still had 50% to 60% excess capacity for handling urban waste, liquefied gas, and organic fertilizer production.

"Then let's convert the phase three building into a deep-recovery factory." Huang Xiuyuan instructed Du Jinhua:

"Jinhua, have your engineering team fully cooperate with the factory. I require comprehensive recovery of industrial sewage and industrial solid waste."

Du Jinhua immediately replied with confidence: "Don't worry, Mr. Huang. We will definitely give it our all."

With the Hexa-conical Spherical Oxygen, the rapid water filter using Heptagonal Silicon Oxide-Graphene Film, and the Nitrogen-16 High-Efficiency Catalyst, this entire suite allows for the efficient and low-cost recovery of almost all waste, excluding nuclear waste.

This level of recovery is near perfect and represents the method that will be adopted on a large scale after 2043, greatly reducing human 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 participated in the design of the deep-recovery workshop, which referenced some of the plans from the desalination workshop.

During the new process testing in the desalination workshop, some minor issues were discovered one after another, such as the generation of small amounts of electrolytic hydrogen and oxygen after the solution was electrified.

If not handled in time, the concentration of hydrogen and oxygen in the workshop would continuously accumulate after repeated reactions, potentially triggering a hydrogen explosion.

The solution was to send the hydrogen to the gas generators for combustion to produce electricity, which not only reduced the danger but also recovered some energy.

The design of the deep-recovery workshop also developed through trial and error.

After repeated adjustments, the recovery workshop was divided into two main types: the water-soluble pollutant recovery workshop and the insoluble pollutant recovery workshop.

Then, based on the different temperatures of the forced reactions, the sequence for recovering elements was designed.

In Meilong Town, Haifeng County.

Two intern researchers, along with two sewage suction trucks converted from septic trucks, were beside a river, sucking water from the riverbed while discharging filtered, pure water back into the river.

Tian Xin, who had just graduated this year, looked at the river before her, her face turning pale: "The pollution is too severe."

Her colleague, Wang Kainan, shrugged helplessly: "Under normal circumstances, the pollution from these small electroplating factories is almost unavoidable."

On both sides of the river were gold and silver jewelry processing plants, hardware processing plants, and electroplating plants of various sizes. The electroplating sewage from these small factories was almost discharged directly into the river, or at best, underwent simple filtration and sedimentation.

Within the jurisdiction of Haifeng County, the jewelry processing industry in Meilong Town, the gemstone processing industry in Ketang Town, and the garment industry in Gongping Town were all local pillar industries.

In particular, the jewelry processing industry in Meilong Town and the gemstone processing industry in Ketang Town were famous throughout the industry nationwide.

However, while jewelry and ornament processing brought economic benefits, they also brought massive pollution.

The horror of this pollution exceeded the environment's own self-purification capacity.

Consider the rivers in the USA: why did Asian carp become a disaster after being introduced, yet locals rarely eat them? It is not because they taste bad, nor because of the fish bones, but because of a very realistic problem: the heavy metal content in the Asian carp exceeds safety standards.

Why does the heavy metal content in Asian carp exceed standards?

Because these rivers previously had a large number of factories discharging sewage, causing pollutants to deposit in the riverbeds, silt, and surrounding flora and fauna.

Although these American rivers look "picturesque" after surface-level renovations, in reality, those pollutants remain in large quantities.

Take the main pollution in Meilong Town—electroplating wastewater—as an example.

The composition of electroplating wastewater is extremely complex. In addition to cyanide-containing (CN-) wastewater and acid-alkali wastewater, heavy metal wastewater is a category of electroplating waste with extremely high potential hazards.

According to the heavy metal elements contained in the wastewater, it can generally be classified into chromium (Cr)-containing, nickel (Ni)-containing, cadmium (Cd)-containing, copper (Cu)-containing, zinc (Zn)-containing, gold (Au)-containing, and silver (Ag)-containing wastewater, among others.

This sewage is highly toxic. It might not manifest in the human body immediately, but over the years, as humans at the top of the food chain, we will inevitably accumulate these heavy metals in our bodies.

Tian Xin was a child who grew up in the city. Suiren Company was her first formal job after leaving campus, and it was her first time experiencing the severe pollution of an underdeveloped region.

Sacrificing the environment and the physical health of the local people for the sake of mechanical growth in production value is a form of development that ruins the future of generations to come.

"Once you've seen enough, you won't feel surprised or disgusted anymore." Wang Kainan looked at the purified water being discharged.

Suddenly, Tian Xin blurted out, "I just realized, it feels like I'm doing something great."

Scooping up a handful of the purified water, Wang Kainan smiled. "Yeah! It really is a great undertaking."

"Back to work." Tian Xin cheered herself on.

The two of them collected samples of the soil, silt, plants, and insects around the riverbank.

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