Compared with fusion generators, the principle of thermal power plants is simpler. It is nothing more than heating water through the mixed combustion of tholin and oxygen, and using high-pressure steam to drive the generator impeller to rotate. Even because of the lower gravity on Sedna, the rotation of the impeller is easier, and under the same conditions, the efficiency is higher than on Earth.
After learning that huge reserves of oxygen ore had been discovered and that there were no obstacles to building thermal power stations, the haze that had shrouded people during this period was instantly swept away. Chai Cheng and other people majoring in electrical engineering designed the drawings of the No. 1 thermal power station as quickly as possible, and then immediately started building it in full swing.
The No. 1 Thermal Power Station is located not far from the living area, with a total area of about one million square meters, but the first phase of the project only covers an area of about 10,000 square meters.
In the first phase of the project, it is planned to build two generators with an installed capacity of 3,000KW. Excluding losses and running at full power, these two generators can generate about 130,000 kWh a day. Accordingly, approximately 70 tons of tholin and 150 tons of oxygen are consumed every day. A total of 6,600 tons of tholin and oxygen are needed in one month.
With such a huge consumption of materials, it is obvious that a special railway line must be connected to the thermal power plant. So some modifications were made to the road network, which not only connected the thermal power plant, but also connected the oxygen mine, and also connected the canyon near the living circle that contained a huge amount of tolin.
The power generation capacity of 130,000 kilowatt hours per day can only support the operation of railway lines in the early stage, but it is far from enough in the long run. In fact, the overall planning of the No. 1 Thermal Power Plant will have an installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts and can generate 22 million kilowatt-hours of electricity every day - approximately equivalent to less than one-tenth of a famous hydropower station in the earth's era. A total of about 1.1 million tons of tholin and oxygen are consumed every month.
By then, the excess electricity can support Zhao Changxing to build more planting workshops to produce more food, build more livestock and aquaculture workshops to produce more meat, eggs, milk and fish, and build more living areas for more people to live in. , and by the way, the scale of the industrial zone was further expanded.
While people were busy, the supporting facilities of No. 1 Power Plant were built first. A railway leads directly to here, and thick cables are also led from the thermal power plant to the railway lines and to living areas, industrial areas and other places.
Various machines from the industrial area have begun to be installed and debugged on the initial framework, and the tolin ore and oxygen ore that will be consumed in the first month have also been put in place. They were just thrown into the open space casually, and there was no need to worry about them melting anyway.
When all the machines were debugged and power generation could be officially started, project leaders such as Zhao Changxing and Chai Cheng came to the scene.
Oxygen ore and Tolin ore were transported to the gasification chamber along two different roads, where they were first heated and melted into gas. Because only in their gaseous state can they be easily purified and remove impurities.
In this first power generation process, the electricity for melting solid oxygen and tholin comes from the outside world. But after officially starting to generate electricity, you don’t have to worry about it. Waste heat from power plants is channeled and used to melt them. Now, the power plant doesn’t even generate any electricity, let alone waste heat.
After purification, tholin becomes a mixture of methane, ethane and other gases. After solid oxygen is purified, it becomes oxygen. The two were sent into the combustion chamber together, and the automatic ignition device ignited them. The water that had been frozen into ice immediately began to melt and boil, starting to produce high-temperature and high-pressure steam, which drove the rotation of the generator impeller. .
In the process of cutting the magnetic lines of force, electrical energy is finally generated. On the tall light pole, after flashing for a few times, the high-brightness lighting finally released a bright light, illuminating the first phase of the thermal power plant as if it were daytime.
The lamps installed in the factory also lit up.
Zhao Changxing, Chai Cheng and others cheered together.
"Finally, I have no worries and can develop to my heart's content..."
Zhao Changxing sighed with satisfaction.
At this stage, the power generation load of the No. 1 thermal power plant is still at a very low level, and it is basically only used to maintain its own operation, lighting, and surveillance. Because there are not enough appliances at the moment to consume the power it produces. But soon there will be an endless wave of power demand rushing towards it.
The rail laying has not yet been completed, but the first and most important line - the rail connecting the No. 1 power plant to the oxygen mine has been almost laid. The first electric-driven locomotive has also rolled off the production line in the industrial area, and the first transportation will begin soon.
The train on Sedna has roughly the same appearance as the train on Earth, except that it is wider and has a larger load capacity. Because the gravity here is too low, more cargo can be transported with the same power. One of its carriages is 5 meters wide, 4 meters deep and 40 meters long. One carriage can transport almost 800 tons of water ore or 600 tons of oxygen ore.
Its front end also has no aerodynamic design at all. The reason is simple, there is no air at all on Sedna.
It is driverless and is controlled by Xiao Xi as it runs on the rails.
Its first passengers were some construction machinery, some building materials, and some construction personnel from the industrial area. They will take this train, which will take more than three hours, to reach the No. 1 oxygen mine about 130 kilometers away, and use these building materials to build a mining base there. After that, these dozen people will be stationed there for a long time and be responsible for the mining of oxygen ore for a long time.
Feeling the vibrations of the earth and listening to the non-existent train whistle, Zhao Changxing looked at the first train on Sedna and waved to it. The next moment, the electricity from the thermal power plant drove it into the boundless darkness.
The construction of the power plant has continued, the construction of trains has continued, and the rails have been laid. Stations have appeared one by one on the desolate land of Sedna. All facilities and personnel have been slowly put in place. Zhao Changxing finally appeared in front of him. A scene of dozens of trains running busily loaded with cargo.
Iron ore from Yellow Iron No. 1, manganese ore from Manganese Mine No. 1, solid oxygen from Oxygen Mine No. 1, Tolin Mine from Tolin No. 1, solid ice from Shui Mine No. 1...
Endless materials began to gather in the industrial area, and turned into pieces of steel plates, pieces of machinery, parts, etc., leaving the industrial area, either flowing to the construction site, or flowing to the industrial area...
At this moment, the population of human civilization has officially exceeded the five thousand mark, and the adult population has exceeded two thousand. In the industrial zone, almost all primary industrial products can be produced. High-end industrial products, such as chips, have been officially produced in laboratories and are currently undergoing mass production research.
The computing capabilities of this first-generation chip are far inferior to those brought from Earth, and they basically have no practical value. But it doesn't matter. After completing the breakthrough from 0 to 1, it will be much easier to complete the breakthrough from 1 to 100. Besides, the requirements for industrial control chips are actually not high - just like the chip installed in a tractor, what does it need such high performance?
Soon, people on Sedna will be able to use the chips they produce.
But this is not what makes Zhao Changxing the most happy. What makes him most happy is that now that the medicine reserves brought from the earth have been almost exhausted, the people on Sedna finally have the first medicine production line.
This first pharmaceutical production line can produce nitroglycerin tablets, which can treat angina pectoris. With the ability to produce their own products, elderly people suffering from heart disease no longer have to worry about running out of medicine.
Various antibiotic production lines, medical consumables, and medical equipment production lines are also under preparation. Soon, almost every common ailment could be solved with home-grown drugs and devices. High-tech drugs brought from Earth can be stored and used in emergencies.
In addition, another thing also made Zhao Changxing very happy. That is, the first set of space suits produced by people finally successfully rolled off the production line.
There were only 400 spacesuits brought from the earth, but now the number of adults has exceeded 2,000, which is obviously not enough. At this stage, the approach people take is to build life-support facilities in all factories, bases, etc. as much as possible, so that people can work without leaving the life-support environment. This greatly reduces the frequency of use of space suits.
However, the scarcity of spacesuits has always been a constraint for people, forcing them to give up many construction needs that can be quickly solved through extravehicular operations. For example, due to the lack of space suits, the task of laying railway tracks was delayed a lot.
Now, I have the ability to produce space suits. Although the various indicators of this space suit are much lower than those brought from the earth, it is still usable, and this bottleneck has been solved.
Now that all developments are on track and there are no overall bottlenecks in a short period of time, Zhao Changxing begins to think about another issue.
With the rapid increase in population, Zhao Changxing felt more and more clearly that the efficiency of the overall society had been greatly reduced.
Problems such as unclear powers and responsibilities, uneven distribution, and personnel confusion have become increasingly obvious.
"The time has come to establish a government that will comprehensively coordinate all aspects of civilization."
Zhao Changxing made up his mind.
