Coquettish Rebirth

"Mr. Jia, have you ever thought about trying bio-ethanol?" Mr. Luo asked Jia Hongjian.

"Ethanol? Biological? What are you using it for? Blending with liquor?" Jia Hongjian blinked and asked in confusion.After all, he is not an expert in organic chemistry. To be precise, he is not qualified to study organic chemistry at all - because red and green are weak, so he can't apply for these aspects in the college entrance examination.

"Of course it's not liquor. This bioethanol is similar to biodiesel and is used to match gasoline engines. Generally speaking, cooking oil and other fats are similar to diesel. They are not suitable for ignition, and they are all used in compression ignition. Ethanol is similar to gasoline, and can be ignited. Therefore, bioethanol can be produced by using corn or even wood fiber with some procedures, and blending with gasoline at a ratio of 5% to 15%. For example, the United States basically uses e85 Standard ethanol gasoline, that is, 85% gasoline plus 15% ethanol. The price and performance of the gasoline mixed in this way are similar to conventional gasoline..." Mr. Luo explained with a smile.

Whoa!What about ethanol gasoline?Jia Hongjian thought about it, and later generations seem to have heard this kind of statement, but ethanol gasoline is not the same as biodiesel - there is a shop selling biodiesel in a front house opposite his community, so give Jia Hong Gradually, it seems that biodiesel is very popular.Now that I hear it this way, this ethanol gasoline seems to have something to do? "Then ethanol gasoline... No, bioethanol has no future like biodiesel?" Jia Hongjian asked hastily.

"It's a bit...but relatively speaking, it's better. You also know that bioethanol is basically the same as our wine making. It uses enzymes brought by various microorganisms to make sugar and starch It is converted into alcohol, that is, ethanol. Relatively speaking, things containing starch are easy to find, and there are not too many plants containing various oils. So in general, if our bioethanol is used, the raw materials must be much more abundant than biodiesel There are so many! So relatively speaking, it is not very difficult to promote it on a large scale. The only problem is to grab food from others..." Mr. Luo said.

When Jia Hongjian heard this, he immediately felt a little embarrassed.To be honest, China has such a large population.Food is really a big problem.If China is not China, but the United States.If there is such a vast plain in the central part that can be used for crop production, then you can really get all the ethanol!As for China, according to Jia Hongjian’s textbooks when he was a child, 7% of the population was fed with 22% of the arable land, right?The food problem itself is quite stressful, if motor vehicles have to compete with people for food.Is this worth it?You must know that liquor advertising was so fierce in the past two years, why was it suddenly stopped?It is because the country found that a large amount of grain was used for wine making, and felt that this wine making was a little bit about to threaten food security, so it directly ordered to limit production!

From this point of view, Jia Hongjian still thinks that if their bio-ethanol grows bigger, then the state will definitely interfere!And if there is such a thing as brewing ethanol.Can't one ton of grain produce one ton of ethanol?Then, if we calculate according to the annual consumption of 1000 million tons in our country, how can this be tens of millions of tons of grain?Can this country agree?

Seeing Jia Hongjian's hesitation, Mr. Luo immediately added, "However, there are many starch-containing crops in nature. Not only can we use the most traditional method to brew ethanol from grain, we can also Biochemically use various enzymes and special means to treat things that were not used to produce ethanol before. It is not necessary to use food. For example, Japan is now studying the use of dry rice straw to brew ethanol. Through various methods, Get out the large amount of starch contained in the dry rice straw and then make biological enzyme brewing and so on... Similarly, in fact, our country also has similar things, such as the straw after harvesting various crops. These straws are all in the countryside. Leave it on the ground to burn, although the burned plant ash will become fertilizer, but the huge smoke will also have a great impact on the surrounding cities. If we can figure out how to use straw to make ethanol, how good would it be?"

Whoops I'm going!Jia Hongjian was interested when he heard it!Stuff like straw is definitely something that no one wants and it is troublesome to put it away in the countryside!If this kind of thing gives a little bit of a suitable price.If farmers are willing to work hard to transport the straw to various places... and then we make it into alcohol, the cost will be very low in theory!At least the price of buying straw is cheaper than buying grain, right?After all, food or something is the main purpose of production, and this straw is just a "by-product". In the past, this kind of straw was treated as garbage!At least it sounds like this thing doesn't compete with humans for food anymore, and it's still a "symbiosis" relationship, right?

Then when Jia Hongjian became interested.Mr. Luo said next to him: "According to the information disclosed by the relevant personnel in Japan, the general method is to use cellulase to decompose the straw cellulose, and at the same time use other methods to get out the starch contained in the straw. Starch is brewed to increase the yield. Their goal is to produce 315 liters of absolute ethanol from a meal of dry straw. If we use straw here, I think 300 liters can be the target. If the goal of 300 liters can be achieved , then generally speaking, the production cost of absolute ethanol... It is estimated that it can reach 0.5 US dollars per liter, so it is 4 yuan per liter. Although it is more expensive than the current oil price, it will be produced in a few years No good, the oil price will go up to 4 yuan!"

So high-tech?It can be said that after hearing this, Jia Hongjian was really interested!Although the old man didn't tell him how much the exhaust pollution was reduced after burning ethanol gasoline, but after thinking about it, he knew that this ethanol is also alcohol, and the chemical formula of alcohol is c2h5oh, right?After this thing burns, the products should be carbon dioxide and water, right?This is not much less than all kinds of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and so on after gasoline is burned!

Just after Jia Hongjian was tempted, Mr. Luo even said as if he was about to strike the final blow: "And the United States has already gone ahead to explore this thing. They expect the total production of ethanol for vehicles this year." It will reach 500 million tons, of course, they mainly use corn, and our country temporarily uses sweet sorghum..." Upon hearing this, Jia Hongjian immediately felt that this stuff has more prospects than biodiesel up!How much is the annual production of biodiesel in the United States?It's only about 50 million tons, right?But the ethanol used in cars is already ten times that of it, so isn't it obvious who is more suitable for commercialization?And Mr. Luo also said just now that you can invest in the research and development of crop waste materials such as straw to make ethanol, which sounds more like the same thing as research and development of algae with high oil content-at least the straw and other things. It already exists, so there is no need to try to get such a thing anymore!The most is to study how to get out the cellulose and starch in things like straw, right?

However, this time, Jia Hongjian is more refined than before. Before he makes a decision, he is still going to ask the old man why the United States already has an annual output of 500 million tons, but China has no voice? "Old man, why are we here in China...?" Before he could finish asking, he saw the old man Luo smiled wryly, "Who made our China food shortage? Although the annual grain output reached the record level in 96 The highest peak, but generally speaking, our food is still in a relatively tight balance. After all, the living standards of the people are increasing day by day. It is impossible to say that they will eat the same amount of food as in 96, right? Disasters require strategic reserves, and we need to maintain the red line of grain, so the overall grain volume must ensure that the people can eat. But the United States is different. The United States can be said to be the largest grain exporter in the world. The population is only a fraction of ours, and on such a large plain, one person can support a lot of people by mechanized food production, and there is so much food that we can’t finish it, so besides exporting it, can it be used to make alcohol?”

Hey, what you said is really true!However, after hearing what the old man said, Jia Hongjian understood that the corn in the United States would definitely not have any impact at all—there are more corn for various vehicles, and less corn can be exported. Coupled with the increasing appetite of the Chinese people, the price of food in the world will definitely rise slowly all the way.And the chaos in Egypt and the like in history, isn't it because the support of the big pie and welfare that could be distributed to the people for free in the past can no longer be supported?If you think about it this way, if you only import corn from the United States, it is definitely not reliable, and China still has to go its own way!Guessing, what cellulase and special methods of straw treatment are still needed?

"Then if we invest in research on bioethanol, how many years will it take for methods like straw to produce results? How much should we invest?" Jia Hongjian asked the most critical question. "Hiss... I can't guarantee this. After all, scientific research is not about dating and dinner. But I personally feel that with an annual investment of 3000 to 15 million yuan, I estimate that it will take 6000 to [-] years of research, and there should be results! This is about the utilization of straw. If we use the sweet sorghum discovered in our country as a utilization material, the efficiency will be higher. The sweet sorghum can also be planted on non-cultivated land as a whole. If one hectare of sweet sorghum About [-] liters of ethanol for vehicles can be produced, which is more than three times higher than that of cassava and corn! But the problem is that there are not many complete solutions for sweet sorghum in China. If we want to import it, it must be imported from the United States. equipment, and the equipment in the United States must be used to process corn. This is why it has not been widely promoted in China..." Mr. Luo said.

Whoa!If you hear it like this, it seems that if you don't use this sweet sorghum to make ethanol, you're going to make money without making money!Of course, for an old fox like Jia Hongjian, it is impossible to say that the old man Luo will invest directly as soon as he mentions it. He has to find others to inquire about it anyway...