Sail across the sea

Chapter 11 Coal consumption per ton of ammonia

Seeing Gao Yiping leave, Ran Yuying closed the door of the house, sat opposite Gao Fan who was eating noodles, and said:

"Xiao Fan, don't talk to your dad. He's under a lot of pressure at work these days, and he's in a bad mood. Don't be influenced by him."

"It's okay." Gao Fan raised his head, gave Ran Yuying a smile, and said, "Isn't my dad just like this, I'm used to it."

"That's right, it's about work. Why come to the house to vent your anger? I'm still the director of the factory." Ran Yuying echoed.

Gao Fan asked: "You said just now that my dad is under a lot of pressure these days, did something happen in the factory?"

"It's not the notice from the Ministry of Chemical Industry, saying that the coal consumption will be reduced to 2500 kilograms. Our factory is now more than 3000. The province said that if it can't be reduced, the factory will stop production. Now the factory leaders are busy with this matter. What?" Ran Yuying said, with a ray of sadness on her face.

Gao Fan was silent, and vaguely remembered that his predecessor had heard his parents talk about it at home.However, at that time, Gao Fan didn't understand these things, and his family didn't expect him to understand these things. They just let him focus on preparing for the college entrance examination, so Gao Fan didn't pay attention to this matter.

But this Gao Fan is different now, Ran Yuying half-knowledged about a concept, and he understood what was going on, and also understood why his father felt so stressed.

This has to start from the beginning:
A flower in a crop depends entirely on fertilizer.It is well known that the development of modern agriculture is inseparable from the support of chemical fertilizers.

In the 80s and [-]s, China's nitrogen fertilizer industry included three parts: large nitrogen fertilizer, medium nitrogen fertilizer and small nitrogen fertilizer.

The so-called large nitrogen fertilizer is China's use of the opportunity to ease relations with the West in the mid-70s, and imported 13 sets of devices with an annual output of 30 tons of synthetic ammonia and 52 tons of urea from the West.These 13 sets of devices were put into operation successively from 1977 to 1979, which greatly eased the gap between domestic fertilizer supply and demand and saved a large amount of expenditure for importing urea.

The so-called medium-sized nitrogen fertilizer refers to the synthetic ammonia plant with an annual output of 1 tons to 10 tons, of which there are mainly two specifications of 2.5 tons and 5 tons.As early as 1956, China designed and built the first medium-sized nitrogen fertilizer plant by itself. By 1978, the number of medium-sized nitrogen fertilizer plants had reached 50, and the production of synthetic ammonia in that year was 319 million tons.

The last item is a small nitrogen fertilizer plant with unique Chinese characteristics.The annual synthetic ammonia production capacity of these nitrogen fertilizer plants is between 2000 tons and 5000 tons, among which the annual output of 3000 tons of synthetic ammonia is the most common.The advantage of small nitrogen fertilizer is less investment, low technical threshold, suitable for construction everywhere.In the case that all parts of the country are facing a shortage of chemical fertilizers, vigorously building small nitrogen fertilizers can have the effect of sending charcoal in a timely manner.

According to statistics, in the 1969 years from 1978 to 10, a total of 1225 small nitrogen fertilizer plants were built nationwide.By 1979, there were 1533 small nitrogen fertilizer plants in the country, and the output of small synthetic ammonia was 658 million tons, accounting for 55.6% of the total output of synthetic ammonia in the country, which can be said to support half of China's nitrogen fertilizer industry.

However, behind the brilliance of small nitrogen fertilizers, there are also huge problems.Due to the small scale of facilities and backward technology, the energy consumption level of small nitrogen fertilizer plants is extremely high, and the average energy consumption per ton of synthetic ammonia produced is equivalent to 2 to 3 times that of large nitrogen fertilizer plants.

Most of the small nitrogen fertilizer factories in China use the same production process, that is, use coal to generate air gas and water gas in the gasifier, and mix them to obtain semi-water gas containing carbon monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen, which is used as the raw material gas for ammonia synthesis.The raw gas is purified and synthesized into ammonia in the synthesis tower.The ammonia then reacts with carbon dioxide to form ammonium bicarbonate.

For a long time, ammonium bicarbonate was the main fertilizer used in rural China. Wherever urea can be obtained, that is a great thing.

Since the main production raw material of the small nitrogenous fertilizer plant is coal, the most critical indicator when assessing its energy consumption is called "coal consumption per ton of ammonia", that is, the raw material coal and fuel coal consumed for producing one ton of synthetic ammonia.In addition, the power consumption index is also calculated in tons of ammonia.

In order to compare with the large nitrogen fertilizer that does not use coal, sometimes the coal consumption and electricity consumption are uniformly converted into calorific value, which is called the energy consumption per ton of ammonia process.

In the 21st century before Gao Fan’s time travel, some small nitrogen fertilizer enterprises in China have been able to achieve the so-called "three thousand", that is, the consumption of ammonia and two coal per ton is less than 1000 kg, the power consumption is less than 1000 kWh, and the process energy consumption is less than 1000 Thousands of calories.But in 1979, the average level of small nitrogen fertilizer plants in the country was 2740 kg of coal per ton of ammonia, 1596 kWh of electricity, and 2446 million kcal of process energy consumption, more than double the level of later generations.

Due to the abnormally high energy consumption, the production cost of the small nitrogen fertilizer plant remains high and the losses are serious, which also brings great pressure to the country's energy supply.

In 1980, the state began to implement the economic policy of "commitment of profit and loss, retaining profit, not supplementing the excess, and retaining the reduced loss" in small nitrogen fertilizer factories to promote energy saving and consumption reduction. In 1981, it was further proposed that all enterprises that consume more than 2500 kg of ammonia per ton of coal and 1500 kWh of electricity will be shut down.

Canghai Chemical Fertilizer Factory is a small nitrogen fertilizer factory built in the 60s. The earliest designed production capacity was 3000 tons of synthetic ammonia and 12000 tons of ammonium bicarbonate per year.Later, after several technical transformations, the production capacity was expanded to an annual output of 5000 tons of synthetic ammonia and 20000 tons of ammonium bicarbonate.

Production capacity has expanded, but the technical level has not improved.According to Ran Yuying, the factory currently consumes more than 3000 kilograms of ammonia per ton of coal, far exceeding the standard of less than 2500 kilograms set by the Ministry of Chemical Industry.

The Provincial Department of Chemical Industry issued an ultimatum to Canghai Chemical Fertilizer Factory. If Canghai Chemical Fertilizer Factory could not take effective measures to reduce energy consumption below the standard of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, then the Department of Chemical Industry would issue a red card and order Canghai Chemical Fertilizer Factory to stop production. Thousands of cadres and workers in the factory will face the fate of diversion.

This is still the era of the planned economy. If a state-owned enterprise suspends production, the state will be responsible for relocating all the cadres and workers. The general approach is to divert them to other enterprises instead of directly laying them off as they did later.However, it is not always a pleasant thing when one's own business is closed and diverted to other companies.

Although the Canghai Chemical Fertilizer Factory has been losing money year after year, the welfare of the factory is not bad because of the government's support. It is considered a very good company in Cangtang County.If they are diverted, employees may only go to some enterprises with poor benefits, and as outsiders, they will not be able to get good jobs or positions. This is equivalent to everyone changing from a first-class citizen to a fourth-class citizen. Who can accept it?
The same is true of the factory leaders.The company you lead has ceased production, and the county will assign you to other companies. Although your administrative level can still be retained, will they allow you to be a leader again?Why don't I give you a cold bench and let you hang around there and wait to die?
It can be said that the standard of 2500 kilograms of coal consumption is now a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all the cadres and workers of the Canghai Chemical Fertilizer Factory. Cut the rope holding the sword and let the sword fly down.

"Dad just said to go to the workshop to discuss with Xiao Zhou and the others. Did he mean Aunt Xiaoyun?"

Gao Fan pulled out a name from his ex's memory and asked Ran Yuying for proof.

Ran Yuying nodded and said: "Isn't it Zhou Xiaoyun? We depend on her for our factory to survive now. I heard that she is also looking for information day and night. I saw her this morning, and she has lost weight. It's a circle."

"That's it..." Gao Fan responded.

"Oh, don't worry about this matter, it's your father's business. Your task now is to study hard and try to get into a good university. If the factory closes in the future, your father and I will still count on you to support us. "

As Ran Yuying said, she touched Gao Fan's head, full of her old mother's expectations.

(End of this chapter)