Chapter 101: Microalgae to ethanol

The sudden drop in temperature made the two problems of warmth and heating of

the shelter become serious at this time.

Although the outside temperature is \-34℃ and the interior of the shelter is

7℃, it is enough to prove that the shelter has excellent warmth and cold

resistance, but this does not conceal the fact that the temperature inside the

shelter is already very low.

Be aware that there are also greenhouses in the refuge. If the temperature

there is too low, it will affect the growth of crops.

While thinking about these issues, while clearing the ice in the small bunker,

Chen Xin had to think about how to improve the heating and keeping warm of the

shelter.

Compared with the heating problem, keeping warm is not so difficult for Chen

Xin. After all, his refuge is protected by a soil layer more than two hundred

meters away. Even the entrance has a thick reinforced concrete and insulation

layer, which has absolutely no thermal insulation performance. In other words,

the indoor temperature is still 7 degrees is the best proof.

If you want to improve the insulation performance, Chen Xin thinks that he

only needs to upgrade the wall insulation material again, it should be enough.

As for the choice of upgrading insulation materials, Chen Xin has no idea, but

if possible he wants to replace the wall insulation materials with carbon-

doped aerogel.

The thermal conductivity of carbon-doped aerogel can be as low as 0.013w/m·K

at normal temperature and pressure, which is currently the lowest thermal

conductivity solid material on Bluestar.

Compared with the traditional polyurethane material, the performance is more

excellent, even in the extremely low temperature environment, it can still

play a good thermal insulation effect.

But the heating problem is a bit serious.

Although the room temperature inside the refuge is still 7 degrees Celsius, it

is fine if Chen Xin does not turn on the heater at this temperature, but the

planting greenhouse cannot.

Although low temperature will not cause crop death, it will reduce crop

activity and slow down the growth rate. A crop that can be harvested in one

month may take 40 days to harvest.

Therefore, Chen Xin must find a way to maintain the temperature of the

planting greenhouse at at least 20°C to ensure good crop growth.

This undoubtedly needs a powerful heating system, whether it is electricity or

gasoline, it will consume a lot of money.

After all, the calorific value of gasoline is placed here, and the energy that

can be generated is fixed, and the conversion of heat energy into electric

energy has its own loss, and electric energy has to be converted into heat

energy. The energy loss in the middle is too high, and the gain is not worth

the loss.

After all, Chen Xin found that he was still stuck by the energy problem. If

this problem is not solved, it will be difficult for the shelter to continue

to operate normally.

After knocking the broken ice in the small bunker and throwing the broken ice

on the ground from the gap, Chen Xin took the tool and hammered back to the

refuge.

Taking off his protective clothing, he came to the planting greenhouse with a

temperature measuring gun, intending to measure the temperature of the

greenhouse, and then think about heating.

However, this measurement is somewhat unexpected, and the temperature in the

planting greenhouse is still 11°C.

Chen Xin looked at the planting greenhouse with a little surprise, and

carefully looked at the walls of the planting greenhouse and the fill light

hanging on the shelf, and he understood.

These supplementary lights are used to simulate the sunlight. The intensity

can be equivalent to natural light, and naturally there will be heat

generation. Coupled with the insulation of the walls of the planting

greenhouse, it is not difficult to understand that the temperature is higher

than other places in the refuge. thing.

But even so, Chen Xin still has to consider warming up the planting

greenhouse.

Although the temperature of 11°C is not low, it still affects crop growth.

put the temperature measuring gun back into the cabinet in the bedroom, Chen

Xin turned on the computer, and while eating self-heating food for breakfast,

he planned to check information.

After checking the information, Chen Xin is also thinking about what kind of

heating method is more suitable for him.

Chen Xin’s refuge is located on the banks of Dongting Lake. As the north gate

of Hunan Province, this city has a large number of hot springs, whether it is

to the south or north, but it is a pity that the city does not have any

geothermal resources or hot springs.

If there are geothermal hot springs, Chen Xin feels that he can completely

give up thinking. It is enough to dig a large hot spring bath in the refuge

and directly use geothermal heat for heating. Even if the geothermal heat is

abundant, he can also use it to generate electricity.

However, Chen Xin no longer counts on the natural resources of geothermal hot

springs. Not to mention that the city itself does not have geothermal hot

spring resources. When Chen Xin upgraded the water supply system, he fell 50

meters down, and the groundwater that came up was not only bad. It's hot, even

a bit cold.

So geothermal hot spring Chen Xin is not expected anymore.

While browsing the information, Chen Xin also noticed a piece of information

that interests him.

Although this information has nothing to do with heating, it still attracted

his attention.

This is a technology developed by an algae biofuel company in the Federal

State of Florida. It uses a blue-green microalgae intracellular photosynthetic

process to produce ethanol.

The ethanol produced by blue-green microalgae can be excreted through the cell

wall, collected as a dilute ethanol/water solution from a closed

photobioreactor, and purified into fuel grade ethanol.

This is a new technology that was still in the experimental stage before the

disaster ~www.mtlnovel.com~ But the prospects are indeed promising, and the

technology itself has been proven to be feasible.

According to the data given by this company, they expect to build 430

bioreactors per hectare, which can produce about 56,000 liters of ethanol per

hectare per year. The average calculation is that one bioreactor produces

about 130 liters of ethanol.

And a photobioreactor has about 4,500 liters of culture medium, which is 4.5

cubic meters by volume. Chen Xin feels that he can consider upgrading his

algae oxygen generator to this mode, producing oxygen while producing ethanol.

Come.

You must know that ethanol is a very good fuel. Although 130 liters is not a

lot, it can be used in many ways.

recorded this information, Chen Xin searched for a while, only then found the

information he was looking for, the shallow geothermal energy utilization

project planned by the city in the "13th Five-Year Plan" of Yan Country.

The so-called shallow geothermal energy refers to the geothermal resources

contained in the depth of 0-200M on the surface, and is an energy concept

relative to geothermal resources.

Although it belongs to geothermal energy like geothermal resources, the

definition of shallow geothermal energy is <25℃ shallow low temperature

geothermal energy, and its main utilization method was used for heating before

the disaster.

Although the technology for the use of shallow geothermal energy is not a new

technology, because the city’s three shallow geothermal energy utilization

projects were planned in recent years, these projects were not completely

completed until the disaster. Not to mention put into use.

Looking at the introduction and related materials on geothermal energy, Chen

Xin couldn't help but be moved. Would you like to do this? If it is done, it

can not only solve the current heating problem, but if it continues to upgrade

in the future, it may also develop deeper geothermal resources.