Huang Xiuyuan made the decision. "We can consider setting up a potassium extraction workshop at the seawater desalination plants in Shandong Province."
"No problem, President Huang," Li Feiyang replied hurriedly.
According to the plan, Blue Era would establish three seawater desalination plants along the coast of Shandong Province. Each plant was planned to produce 100 million cubic meters of purified water annually in its first phase, for a combined annual output of 300 million cubic meters.
After seawater desalination, aside from the most important product—purified water—the remaining products were salts such as sodium chloride and potassium sulfate, in a ratio of roughly 96.5 to 3.5.
This meant that for every 100 million tons of seawater processed, they could obtain 96.5 million cubic meters of purified water, along with 3.5 million tons of salts.
Potassium, which faced an enormous domestic shortfall, accounted for roughly 0.33% of seawater. One hundred million tons of seawater could yield 330,000 tons of potassium sulfate.
International potash fertilizer prices had surged this year, currently standing at around 4,400 yuan per ton. Annual imports amounted to five to six million tons, and demand was increasing year after year.
Since potassium chloride and potassium sulfate generally made up around 50% to 55% of potash fertilizer, the three seawater desalination plants could extract roughly one million tons of potassium sulfate each year, producing around two million tons of potash fertilizer.
Even at the prices of previous years, wholesale potash fertilizer cost around 3,000 yuan per ton. Two million tons meant six billion yuan.
Huang Xiuyuan continued, "We can consider building another seawater mineral extraction plant here in Shanmei, specifically to extract useful scarce resources."
Lin Baijie, beside him, also chimed in. "That's a good proposal. The southern regions don't lack water to begin with, and desalination plants produce huge