I started with a ship full of max-level veterans, and I'm just a complete noob.

Less than half an hour later, a dull metallic dragging sound came from the end of the corridor.

Old Sun and two young workers used thick hemp ropes to drag a waist-high, thick-walled iron barrel into the house.

The barrel was covered with a hard, black sludge, and the bottom edge was still covered with rusty rivets.

"The barrels that were used to store insulating oil for large Soviet-style transformers when the factory was built were kept at the back of the warehouse and used as footrests for several years."

Old Sun loosened the hemp rope and pulled over a tattered rag to wipe the grease off his hands.

"The barrel walls are a full eight millimeters thick, so thick that even a sledgehammer can't dent them. They're definitely thick enough to be used as the base for pickling tanks."

Jiang Ming stepped forward and tapped the outside of the iron bucket with his knuckles.

Hearing the deep, resonant echo, he turned to look at the black fluororubber scraps on the workbench.

"Cut the rubber sheet into strips, and first sand the inner wall to remove rust, until the metal is exposed and there is no oil stain."

Xiao Zhao immediately pulled out some coarse sandpaper, and led Da Liu to squat down next to the iron bucket, where they began to sand it vigorously.

Rust powder and old grease quickly settled on the ground.

Old Sun then moved the gasoline blowtorch to the long table, struck a flint and sparks, and a dark blue flame roared out, slightly distorting the surrounding air.

Jiang Ming took the scissors and cut the half-square-meter fluororubber sheet into strips ten centimeters wide, then arranged them on the ground according to the curvature of the inner wall of the iron barrel.

"The rubber sheet is too hard; if you stick it on directly, there will be gaps. It has to be softened by baking."

Old Sun held the blowtorch close to the rubber strip, controlling the distance of the flame to ensure the high temperature swept evenly across the black surface.

When heated, the rubber emits a pungent, burnt smell, and the originally stiff material visibly softens.

Jiang Ming put on thick canvas gloves, grabbed a rubber strip while it was still hot, and precisely pressed it into the seam at the bottom of the iron bucket.

Old Sun put down the blowtorch, picked up his homemade iron roller, and rolled it back and forth on the rubber strip to squeeze out all the air trapped inside.

The two worked together seamlessly, wrapping the bottom and lower inner half of the bucket in black rubber, one strip after another.

The seams are the weakest points in terms of acid resistance.

Jiang Ming prepared a high-concentration vulcanizing agent and used a brush to apply it three times to each crevice to form a triple seal.

The portion above the liquid surface that was not in contact with the strong acid was coated with a thick layer of molten, high-temperature paraffin.

Once the rubber had completely cooled and set, Jiang Ming brought over a bucket of dilute sulfuric acid and slowly poured it in along the inner wall, ensuring the acid covered the bottom of the bucket.

The entire workshop fell silent.

Everyone stared at the bottom of the metal bucket.

Ten minutes later, the dry newspapers on the outside were not damp at all, and there was not even a trace of sour smell.

"The homemade acid-resistant tank is complete."

Jiang Ming poured the dilute sulfuric acid back into the waste liquid bucket, rinsed the inner wall with clean water, and then turned to look at the two buckets of titanium dioxide waste residue in the corner.

"Add the waste residue, prepare for leaching."

Da Liu and Xiao Zhao worked together to pour sixty kilograms of waste residue into the modified iron drum in batches, and the grayish-yellow powder piled up into small mounds at the bottom of the drum.

Jiang Ming put on a rubber apron and goggles, then picked up a glass measuring cup filled with concentrated sulfuric acid with both hands and slowly poured it along the side of the bucket.

The moment concentrated sulfuric acid comes into contact with the waste residue, a violent reaction immediately erupts.

A piercing hissing sound echoed inside the iron drum, as large amounts of white acid mist mixed with pungent sulfur dioxide rose into the air.

The temperature of the outer wall of the iron drum rose rapidly, becoming so hot that it was impossible to touch it.

To keep the workshop warm, all the windows were sealed shut with newspapers and paste, resulting in extremely poor ventilation.

Thick acid mist quickly spread, making the air feel like it was being choked by knives.

Xiao Zhao was stirring with a long-handled wooden stick when he suddenly dropped it, clutched his chest, and coughed violently, his face turning blue.

Da Liu covered his nose and took several steps back, leaning against the metal cabinet, panting heavily, tears streaming down his face.

"Stop! Everyone back off!"

Jiang Ming immediately roared, grabbed Xiao Zhao's arm, and dragged him to the workshop gate.

"Open the door and let some fresh air in. No one is allowed near the metal barrel without my permission."

Old Sun was also choking and coughing, but instead of running outside, he picked up a shovel and tried to put the lid on the iron bucket.

"Old Sun, put down the shovel and get out."

Jiang Ming's voice was unquestionable, forcing Old Sun to retreat outside the door.

A cold wind rushed in through the open door, dispersing the acidic mist at the entrance.

However, toxic gas continued to billow out from above the iron drum.

Jiang Ming stood in the wind, his brows furrowed in a deep knot.

The leaching of waste residue requires maintaining a high-temperature reaction for four hours.

If the problems of exhaust and poison prevention cannot be solved, this job is impossible to do, and everyone in the workshop will be poisoned.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness instantly sank into that bronze-colored ancient book.

The "Record of Connections" opens silently.

He quickly called out in his mind to the pioneer who studied the physics of vacuum systems and material interfaces, asking for emergency plans for rudimentary methods of preventing poisoning and ventilation.

The pioneer's voice carried its usual rigor and detachment.

"Acid mist is heavier than air and will settle at lower levels, so a forced ventilation channel must be built directly above the reaction vessel."

"If you don't have a gas mask, use multiple layers of damp cotton cloth to sandwich crushed charcoal. The microporous structure of charcoal can absorb most of the acidic gases, and the damp cloth can dissolve sulfur dioxide."

Jiang Ming opened his eyes and immediately turned to walk towards the waste storage area.

He found two high-powered cooling fans salvaged from old Soviet machine tools, and also some wide planks removed from packing crates.

Back in the workshop, he directed Lao Sun to use a saw to piece together wooden planks into a simple square air duct, which was then placed upside down on top of the iron drum.

A round hole was made at the top of the air guide cover, just big enough to fit two old fans stacked together.

After the power is turned on, the fan makes a loud roar, and the strong suction draws all the acid mist coming out of the iron drum into the air duct.

At the other end of the ventilation duct, Jiang Ming smashed a pane of glass in the window and extended the duct opening to the outside.

The air in the workshop was finally no longer so pungent.

Jiang Ming then had someone fetch several clean cloths from the canteen, soak them in water, wring them out, sandwich chopped charcoal granules from the boiler room in the middle, and then tie them to his face with thin wire.

Although the simple gas mask is ugly, it is surprisingly effective at blocking acid mist.

Wearing a charcoal-filled mask, Jiang Ming returned to the iron bucket and picked up a long-handled wooden stick to continue stirring.

Concentrated sulfuric acid continuously dissolves the mixed rare earth elements in the waste residue at high temperatures, and the originally grayish-yellow sludge gradually turns into a dark brown viscous liquid.

Four hours later, the leaching reaction finally ended.

Jiang Ming directed the workers to use fine gauze and funnels to filter the viscous liquid into several clean glass vats, removing the ferrosilicon impurities that were insoluble in acid.

The remaining leachate was a turbid yellowish-green color, containing dissolved cerium ions that they desperately needed.

"The final step: settling."

Jiang Ming picked up a basin of prepared oxalic acid solution and stood in front of the glass tank.

Xiao Zhao, wearing a charcoal-covered mask, came closer, his eyes fixed intently on the surface of the vat.

Jiang Ming controlled the strength of his wrist, allowing the oxalic acid solution to slowly flow into the yellow-green leachate along the tank wall like a thin thread.

For the first few seconds, the solution did not change.

Just when Xiao Zhao thought he had failed, a miracle happened.

At the center where the two liquids meet, a milky white flocculent substance suddenly precipitates out.

Immediately afterwards, like an underwater blizzard, a large amount of white sediment surged up and tumbled to the bottom of the tank.

Its color was pure white, like jade, and it was particularly dazzling under the dim workshop lights.

Cerium oxalate.

Jiang Ming didn't stop until he had poured out the entire basin of oxalic acid solution.

A thick layer of white, muddy sediment had accumulated at the bottom of the glass tank.

An uncontrollable cheer erupted from the workshop.

Liu was so excited that he slammed his fist on the table, while Zhao didn't even bother to take off his mask and grinned.

After repeated washing with clean water and filtration, they scraped out all the sediment at the bottom of the tank and weighed it in an enamel pan.

Two kilograms of wet cerium oxalate material.

Based on purity calculations, the cerium oxide extracted from this batch of waste residue is enough for them to make several hundred improved sample tubes.

The deadlock of running out of materials has finally been completely turned around.

The workers gathered around the enamel plate, looking at the white lumps of clay as if they were looking at a mountain of gold.

Wu Hanzhang stood on the periphery of the crowd, but there was little joy in his eyes behind his reading glasses.

He walked over to Jiang Ming, pointed to the wet material in the enamel dish, and lowered his voice.

"Xiao Jiang, it's good that it's settled, but it's only a semi-finished product."

Jiang Ming took off his charcoal mask and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"I know that it needs to be calcined at high temperatures to turn cerium oxalate into cerium oxide."

Wu Hanzhang nodded, his brows still furrowed.

"Calcination is the real gate of hell."

He picked up a glass rod and scooped up a little bit of the white, wet material.

"When the temperature is low, the oxalate ions do not decompose completely, and if you apply them to the inside of the tube, it becomes a poison gas bomb."

"At high temperatures, cerium oxide grains grow rapidly. Once the physical particle size exceeds five micrometers, they will sink to the bottom of the suspension like stones, making electrophoretic deposition impossible."

Wu Hanzhang put down the glass rod and turned to look at Jiang Ming.

"The annealing furnace in Workshop No. 1 has a temperature control accuracy of only plus or minus 20 degrees Celsius. How do you plan to produce submicron-level fine powder in this broken pot?"