Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 218 Preparing to Build a Steel City

On May 1984, 5, Wang Jiankun's uncle Cen Yong took time out to come to the base to visit the new iron-making furnace made by Wang Jiankun.

"Jiankun, is this the new type of iron smelting furnace you mentioned?"

Cen Yong asked in shock as he looked at the compact reduction furnace that was rapidly outputting molten iron.

"That's right, uncle. This flash iron reduction furnace has gone through many iterations. The current reduction furnace can produce 200 tons of iron. If the furnace continues to work, such a reduction furnace can produce 14 tons of pure iron or low-carbon steel every month."

"Such a small reduction furnace can produce 14 tons of pure iron per month, which means the annual output is 170 million tons. This is equivalent to more than half of the production capacity of our three existing ironworks!"

"That's right. The highlight of this flash iron smelting is its speed. Uncle, let's think carefully about how many of these reduction furnaces we should deploy. The war of unification will begin in the second half of the year, and our steel production capacity must be increased as soon as possible."

"Yes, I have already asked the cargo airships and ocean-going fleets to increase the transportation of basic raw materials such as steel. However, the efficiency of transporting such bulk materials by airships is actually quite low. Now that we have this flash iron reduction furnace, I can let the transport team rush to transport other materials first."

Afterwards, Cen Yong learned about the flash iron-making process in detail from Wang Jiankun, and learned that this reduction furnace is currently capable of smelting various iron ores with an iron content of 20% or more. It’s just that when the iron content of the iron ore is lower than 40%, the iron-producing speed will be slower.

"Jiankun, since this reduction furnace can smelt iron ore with such a low iron content, then our low-grade iron mines can be mined and utilized. Their locations are quite advantageous, all within 30 kilometers of the river. The distance to the river after mining is very short."

"Uncle, this type of reduction furnace mainly uses hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Hydrogen can be produced with electricity, and carbon monoxide can be gasified with coal. The amount used is not very large, so this type of iron-making reduction furnace is best placed next to the iron ore. The mined iron ore can be crushed and screened nearby, and then sent to this type of reduction furnace to be refined into pure iron or low-carbon steel. This way, the transportation volume can be greatly reduced."

"Hydrogen is not easy to transport, so it's better to place this reduction furnace near the river."

Wang Jiankun then asked his uncle to mark on the map those iron mines with lower grades but huge reserves. He carefully compared the topographic map of northern Myanmar that he had projected in his mind before, and decided to build the iron reduction furnace between the iron mine and the river.

"Uncle, what do you think of building the iron smelting plant here? It is 20 kilometers away from the iron mine and about 10 kilometers away from the river. The terrain is relatively high above the river by about 20 meters, so there is no danger of flooding.

As for the production of hydrogen, a water pipeline can be buried to draw water from the river. The electrolytic hydrogen plant can be placed about 3 kilometers away from the iron and steel plant. The produced hydrogen can be stored and then transported to the iron and steel plant by pipeline.

Carbon monoxide is produced near the electrolytic hydrogen plant, and water is also connected from there via a pipe. Coal is transported from the river terminal using short-distance rails.

The smelted pure iron or low-carbon steel is also transported to the river dock by short-distance rails.

In addition, if the terrain permits, we can build a forging plant and a machinery plant near the ironworks and use the smelted iron to manufacture semi-finished or finished products nearby.

In this way, three steel industry chains will be built around these three large iron mines.”

"Jiankun, your suggestion is good. How about we go and investigate it on the spot?"

"Okay, let's go to the air force base. We can take a Y-1 transport plane. It will be faster to check from the air."

So the two of them drove the off-road vehicle to the air force base.

At this time, the air force base had built three runways and multiple aprons for parking different types of aircraft.

One of the runways is 1 kilometers long and was built to the standard of being able to take off and land 7-ton large aircraft.

Although the largest aircraft in the base at present are airships, which do not require such a long runway, they will be able to be used in the near future.

At this time, the negotiations with Shanghai Aviation Industry Corporation in China to purchase two Y-2 aircraft were nearing completion. Shanghai Aviation Industry Corporation had already agreed to Quan Jiezhen's request and was just waiting for the consent of the Shanghai government and BJ.

Intelligence collected from other sources indicated that the Shanghai government and BJ would not block it because the Y-10 project had been almost abandoned and they were in final negotiations with McDonnell Douglas of the United States.

If nothing unexpected happens, once the cooperation negotiations with McDonnell Douglas are reached, your Y-10 project will completely lose the support of the country, and then two of the four Y-4s that have been manufactured will definitely be released for purchase.

To this end, Wang Jiankun has asked his uncle to send someone to contact some key personnel of the Y-10 project, hoping that they can come to Myanmar to participate in follow-up research.

For this purpose, he did not hesitate to reveal that Quanjiezhen already has several 15000-ton free forging hydraulic presses and more than 10 8-ton precision forging machines.

These two types of equipment are necessary for manufacturing aircraft beams, landing gear and some parts that need to withstand great pressure. The largest hydraulic press currently being manufactured in China is only 12000 tons, and it is not known how long it will take to complete the manufacturing. Therefore, the aircraft beam of the Yun-10 is spliced ​​with three short beams, and the short beams and landing gear are forged using the existing 3-ton hydraulic press in China. This results in a lower life span for the beams and landing gear of this aircraft. The first complete body manufactured has been detected to have slight cracks, so that aircraft has been stopped from flying and is only used for ground stationary experiments.

Wang Jiankun and Cen Yonggan revealed that the 15000-ton hydraulic press was because basic military support had been provided. In addition, the first 4-ton hydraulic press had already been manufactured by Wang Jiankun, and after a series of tests, the design had been finalized.

Currently, new human researchers are working with natural persons who have brain-computer chips installed to manufacture the second 4-ton hydraulic press.

……

"Uncle, you take the co-pilot seat. Put on the brainwave control helmet and download a copy of the Y-1 transport plane's driving memory from the central computer. Let's control this plane together."

"No need to download. I have already downloaded the driving memory packages for several aircraft we have. I have flown this Y-1 transport aircraft several times. How about I be the main pilot this time and you be the co-pilot?"

Wang Jiankun didn't expect that his uncle actually liked flying and had downloaded flight memory packages for multiple aircraft early on.

"Okay, then you will be the main driver and I will be the co-pilot. This way, I can free up my energy to explore the terrain."

The two got on the plane and sat down, and with the help of the ground crew, the plane took off successfully.

After about 20 minutes, the Y-1 flew to the first iron mine.

This iron mine currently has only three open-pit mining sites. The iron ore grade of these three sites is relatively high, reaching 3%, which is barely qualified for smelting in blast furnaces.

Wang Jiankun asked his uncle to lower the plane to about 150 meters from the ground, and then used his superpowers to detect the iron mine in the air. He found that the iron mine was huge and the iron ore was buried very shallowly. The soil layer above was about 3 to 8 meters, which was very suitable for open-pit mining.

Unfortunately, except for a few scattered areas where the iron content of ore reaches 40%~50%, the iron content of iron ore in other places is only about 28%~32%.

It is very uneconomical to smelt this grade of iron ore using traditional blast furnaces. The cost will be very high and a lot of coal and slag-forming agents will be required.

However, now that we have flash iron reduction furnaces, this grade of iron ore still has extremely high use value.

After surveying the iron ore area, Wang Jiankun surveyed the terrain from the iron ore field to the riverbed and found several places with hard geology and suitable heights. These places are suitable for building ironworks, steel mills and forging plants.

"Uncle, this iron ore area has been explored. If all of it is mined, the pure iron that can be produced will reach 20 billion tons."

"Two billion tons? That's enough for Myanmar to use for decades, right? Then we can just mine and use this iron ore."

"Two billion tons is not enough. After we unify Myanmar, we will have to carry out large-scale construction, shipbuilding, railway construction, and various factories. The steel production consumed by these three projects is at the billion-ton level. In addition, we will also liberate the entire South Asia and even the world in the future, so the more steel production, the better."

"Haha, I haven't come to terms with it yet. Let's go check out the other two iron mines. They're both along the Chindwin River, not too far away."

So in the next two hours, the two men flew the Y-1 transport plane to explore two other large iron mines with reserves of 50 billion tons but a grade of only 25% to 35%.

After the detection was completed, Wang Jiankun asked Zhizi to make the plan on the plane, and then discussed with his uncle while planning.

After landing, the prototypes of three huge steel cities took shape in Wang Jiankun's mind.

Although the terrains of the three iron mines are not exactly the same, they are not the protagonists. The protagonists are the flash iron reduction furnaces built around them and a series of steelmaking furnaces, forging plants, machining plants and assembly plants.

After the preliminary design was completed, Wang Jiankun shared it with his uncle through a brain wave control helmet, and then asked him to take it back to Landau for discussion and confirmation with four other senior executives.

"Jiankun, I'm going back to Langdao now. Once the discussion is confirmed, let's get started."

"Okay, have a good trip. If there is anything that needs to be modified, use brainwaves to control the helmet to contact us. We now have satellite communications and can already transmit pictures and videos. I will first build some reduction furnaces, nuclear reactors, electrolysis equipment, etc. here at the base. Once you have finished discussing and the drawings are finalized, they can be used immediately."

So after his uncle Cen Yong flew away on the Y-1 transport plane piloted by a new human pilot, Wang Jiankun devoted his energy to the manufacture of flash iron reduction furnaces and 300-megawatt nuclear reactors in preparation for the upcoming construction of three steel cities.

(End of this chapter)