Material Empire

In the middle of Saudi Arabia, there is a city called Ghazal.

This is a huge seawater desalination plant. On one side of the huge cistern, four PVC pipes with a thickness of one meter are gushing seawater. The other end of the pipes stretches for hundreds of kilometers, stuck in the depths of the Red Sea like a water-absorbing dragon. Several water pumps continuously pump the seawater in the reservoir into the filtration workshop, where the seawater is filtered through the ultra-filtration membrane. When the water flows out of the filtration workshop through the canal, it is no longer bitter, but sweet and delicious, and can be used for drinking and irrigation.

With the help of a large amount of fresh water produced by seawater filtration, an oasis has formed on the sparsely populated Ghazal Desert, and Ghazal City has also become a bustling city. Prince Flanding is now the lord of the city, and all the industries in the city and the surrounding oases belong to him.

"Look, this is the factory you helped us build. Without your seawater desalination technology, I can't imagine that Gaizal can have such a lush grassland."

Accompanied by Qin Hai and his party, Flanding walked in the factory area of ​​the seawater filtration factory, happily introducing to them the changes in the Gezar Desert over the years.

Qin Hai knew Flanding ten years ago. On that occasion, Flanding was nearly bankrupt due to an oil spill from a tanker off the coast of France. Qin Hai used his self-developed super filtration membrane to solve the problem of seawater purification and freed Flanding from the predicament. After that, Flanding invited Daqin Group to set up this seawater desalination plant in his territory of Gezar Desert, and this factory has also become the best demonstration sample of Daqin's seawater filtration technology.

It has been seven or eight years since the factory was built, and this is Qin Hai's first visit to the factory. Prior to this, Flanding had sent out invitations many times, and Qin Hai had also agreed, but they were unable to make the trip due to various reasons. However, the economic relationship between the two parties has never been interrupted. Flanding purchases filter membranes from Daqin Group, and Daqin Group purchases crude oil from Flanding. The two parties are very close trading partners.

Desalination of seawater is achieved by filter membranes, which are consumables, and Flanding pays Daqin Group the purchase cost of filter membranes as high as tens of millions of dollars every year. It is the Saudi oil tyrant who has such confidence. It is absolutely powerless to replace it with poor countries such as Jordan and Yemen.

As for the oil purchased by Daqin Group from Flanding, the quantity is even larger. The annual trading volume of crude oil between the two parties is as high as more than 10 million tons, worth 30 to 4 billion U.S. dollars. It can be said that half of the buildings in Gaizal City were built with the money paid by the Daqin Group.

Qin Hai came to Saudi Arabia this time, on the one hand, to negotiate a crude oil supply agreement with Flanding for the next ten years, to ensure crude oil supply for the upcoming RX project, and on the other hand, to promote Daqin Group’s brand new Technology, to put it bluntly, is to find the local tyrants to beat the autumn wind.

"Prince Flanding's courage is indeed admirable. Although I have never been to Gezal before, but according to the introduction of the employees of the group who went to Gezal, Gezal was completely a desert ten years ago, and I couldn't see it. What green, and now, the oasis around the city is about ten square kilometers?" Qin Hai asked in an appreciative tone.

"It's a full 15 square kilometers." Flanding said proudly, "The environment is completely comparable to that of Europe."

"Not bad." Qin Hai said, "In ten years, the oasis has grown from almost zero to 15 square kilometers. This is a remarkable achievement. I believe that in another ten years, this oasis will grow to 150 square kilometers." A square kilometer is enough to attract the attention of the world.”

"This... I'm afraid it's a bit difficult." Flanding showed embarrassment. He certainly believed that Qin Hai's words came from the heart, but he himself didn't have such great ambitions. The amount of water evaporated in the desert area is extremely high. With the desalination of seawater for irrigation, maintaining an oasis of 15 square kilometers is already a remarkable feat. If he wants to expand the oasis to 150 square kilometers, he will need to build 10 more desalination plants of the same type. The annual electricity bills, membrane consumption, labor costs, etc. are all astronomical figures. to afford such consumption.

"What? Isn't the surrounding desert your territory?" Qin Hai asked in surprise, pretending not to understand what Flanding meant.

"Of course, even a larger area belongs to me." Flanding said, "However, to continue to expand the oasis, the economic pressure is too great."

"Desert afforestation is a global problem. If it can be solved satisfactorily here, Prince Flanding, then you will be famous in history." Qin Hai continued to drink the ecstasy soup.

Flanding nodded repeatedly: "I know this, but the oasis consumes too much water, don't look at my factory can produce nearly 10,000 tons of fresh water every day, compared with the water consumption, it is not worth mentioning at all. Most of the oases outside our city are planted with drought-tolerant plants, otherwise the water consumption would have more than tripled."

"We have a tropical desert climate here, and the amount of evaporation is much greater than yours in China. We can only water the plants at night, and all the water evaporates at dawn." Flanding's assistant Drake Explained to Qin Hai in a low voice.

"It turns out that this is what you are worried about." Qin Hai seemed to have just understood the question. He smiled and pointed to the engineer Yu Lihong who followed him, and said, "I ask Engineer Yu to ask you about this question." Explain."

"We invented a superabsorbent polymer material, which can retain water in the desert and ensure that the water for irrigation will not evaporate." Yu Lihong couldn't wait to say to Flanding and Drake, even before it was too late Do a little foreshadowing.

"What do you mean?" Flanding and Drake were stunned, and after arguing for a long time, Qin Hai said that he would build an oasis of 150 square kilometers, not just a polite word, but a conspiracy.

Yu Lihong didn't care about the attitudes of the two people. He gestured with his hands and said, "The product we invented is a small particle, about the size of a grain of rice. If we mix it with sand, once there is water in the environment, it will It will absorb water into its own body, and at the same time, its volume will increase accordingly, up to 10 times its original volume. When the external environment becomes dry, it will gradually discharge water and provide it to the surrounding Plants. That way, you don’t have to worry about the water evaporating when you water it.”

"Actually, the principle is similar to that of diapers for babies, except that we have lowered some cleanliness requirements, and at the same time reduced the cost to an acceptable range." Qin Hai added on the side.

"Has there been any experiments on the effect of this particle?" Drake asked seriously.

"Of course it has been done." Yu Lihong said, "We have conducted experiments in China's desert areas, so that the water in the sand can be kept for more than a month after this kind of pellets, which can fully guarantee the water needs of plant root growth. "

"So, what about the cost of using it?" Drake asked again.

"In terms of cost..." Yu Lihong hesitated.

"The cost is completely affordable." Qin Hai cut the conversation, knowing that Yu Lihong, an honest man, wanted to tell the truth again, so he had to interrupt him quickly.

"The annual consumption per square kilometer is no more than 50,000 US dollars, and experts have estimated that after 10 years of use, the local vegetation will be able to solidify, and then there will be no need to use such particles for water retention." Qin Hai Said.

50,000 U.S. dollars per square kilometer, equivalent to 400,000 yuan, is of course a heavy expense for China. China's desert covers an area of ​​millions of square kilometers. Even if this kind of particles is used on 1% of the area, the cost will be billions of dollars. It is better to organize manpower to plant grass and fix sand as it is now. But for Saudi Arabia, the situation is different. This is a country with an extremely short labor force and too much money to spend. What is $10 million worth to an oil tycoon like Flanding?

Sure enough, Flanding was a little tempted when he heard that the annual consumption per square kilometer was only 50,000 US dollars. It is of course a great thing for him to be able to expand the area of ​​the oasis. Qin Hai planned for him a long-term plan of 150 square kilometers. According to this plan, it would cost 7.5 million US dollars a year, and it would be enough to sell one or two million barrels of oil.

"That's a good idea." Flanding laughed. "Mr. Qin, I'm willing to accept your suggestion. Please arrange an engineer to make a detailed plan."

"Great, I knew Prince Flanding would be satisfied." Qin Hai smiled.

"It seems that the purpose of Mr. Qin's trip is not only to sign the oil import agreement, but also has other ideas? This gentleman is engaged in super absorbent polymers, so this gentleman and this lady, what are they doing? What about it? Can Mr. Qin introduce it to me?" Flanding pointed to Qin Hai's other two attendants and asked.

"I just wanted to introduce it to you." Qin Hai said, "This is Mr. Ka'an, a tenured professor at the Anhe School of Materials. He used to be a professor at the Brazilian Aeronautical Technology Institute. He is the world's first graphene super capacitor Inventor. As for this lady, she is my wife Tranquility, who is now a researcher at the Superconductivity Research Center of Capital University."

"Prince Flanding, it's a pleasure to meet you." Tranquility stepped forward from Qin Hai's side, bowed gracefully to Flanding, and said, "I would like to thank you very much for the diamond ring you gave to my husband. Because he forwarded it to me again. This time, Mr. Kaan and I came to Gezar with my husband to introduce you to a great idea of ​​Mr. Kaan, which is the collection of lightning. I think, if you want to say that the whole world Whoever is most interested in this technology must be the discerning Prince Flanding."