Machines roared in the oil refining workshop. Ding Zhengyuan, who came to inspect, walked in a safe area under the leadership of the factory manager, and inspected various facilities on the site. Various strange-shaped equipment were the focus of his attention.

After the black and viscous oil enters these equipment, it passes through a series of complex pipelines, and after it comes out, it is "pure turmeric oil" and several lubricating oils and wax oils.

Wax oil can be further "concentrated" to make it into candles. Other refined oils will be injected into wooden barrels according to their type, sealed, labeled on a date, and then loaded on a ship and transported to various coastal areas for sale by sea.

"Essential tar oil" is cheap and can be used by ordinary people, so the demand is very high. As long as the oil wells and factories continue to stop, for the court and the company, a large amount of copper coins keep flowing into the wallet.

Seeing the factory running, Ding Zhengyuan was very happy that the oil smelting factory in Poli Country was officially put into production at the end of summer this year. From the day it was put into production, it was making money for the court and the company.

Ding Zhengyuan didn't know the principle of oil refining and didn't need to know it, but now looking at these tall equipment, it was like looking at money trees, and he asked the accompanying staff interestingly what the principle of oil refining was.

This question is very complicated to answer. If you go deeper, the layman will definitely not understand it, so the accompanying technicians will briefly introduce it.

Oil is mined from the ground and is a black, sticky liquid. Put it in an airtight container and heat it. When it reaches a certain temperature, the liquid in it will turn into "vapor".

Oil vapor goes down the pipeline to the bottom of the "fractionation tower" and then goes all the way up.

In the fractionation column, the higher the position and the lower the temperature, the petroleum vapor will gradually liquefy, cool and condense into liquid "fractions" as it rises.

The gaseous fraction with a lower boiling point slowly rises along the tower, so different components in the oil steam are "fractionated".

Ding Zhengyuan could barely understand, and looked at the tall fractionation tower and sighed: "How skillful must this skillful craftsman have to think of this technique?"

"Director, this is a technology that has been perfected for thirty years, not just one person thinks about it."

"Thirty years?"

"It is precisely because it took thirty years to improve it to have practical fractionation towers and fractionation technology today. The residues of these sticky petroleum in the fractionation device are difficult to clean up. If it weren't for the improvement later, a set of devices would have to be scrapped if they were used a few times..."

"That's how..." Ding Zhengyuan looked at the high fractionation tower and pondered.

Thirty years means that this technology appeared when Ziqian’s residence today. Ding Zhengyuan is a human being. He immediately realized that this topic is not easy to say much, otherwise it would make people think that he was inquiring about the past when Emperor Qian’s residence, so he quickly changed the topic:

"Everyone works in this foreign country, eats well? Lives well? Are they used to eating?"

"Don't worry, director, everyone eats well and sleeps well, but there are more mosquitoes..."

"Let's go and check out the cafeteria and dormitory."

......

In Luzhou and Luzon, a steamer is entering the port. Unlike other steamer ships, this steamer ship does not have a paddle wheel, and the smoke from the chimney is lighter than the smoke from the ordinary steamer ship.

The arrival of this ship attracted the attention of many people in the port area. When everyone saw this steamer that could sail without a paddle wheel, they gradually came back to their senses and remembered that this was the new steamer mentioned in the newspaper.

On the dock, Feng Ann, the governor of Luzhou, looked at the new type of steamship propeller, and looked at Lu Ji beside him, and asked interestingly: "Lao Lu, when will the company plan to put the oil-burning steamship on the route?"

"I'm not too early, after all, the steam boiler that burns oil has not been practical yet. It's rashly put into shipping. If something happens, it won't be good."

Lv Ji, director of Nanyang Trading Company, answered while looking at the test steamship (using oil as fuel) entering the port, and then said:

"But rest assured that even a coal-burning steamer can be achieved with propellers, and long-distance voyages across the sea. I think next year, we will be able to test the new routes between Luzon and Fanyu regularly."

"next year..."

Feng Ang pondered, turned around and walked into the city, and Lu Ji followed closely behind.

Luzhou lacks people, very shortage of people. All major gold, silver, copper and coal mines require a large number of miners to mine. However, due to the high work intensity and poor living conditions, the casualty rate of miners is very high.

However, the local natives in Luzhou were not enough, so they needed to continuously import labor from other places, which involved maritime transportation.

Nowadays, all the miners mining in Luzhou mines are slave workers. The court does not allow mine owners to use the people of the Central Plains to mine. Although the business of Shengkou is booming, the mine owners are not worried about not being able to buy Shengkou, but how to transport the purchased Shengkou to Luzhou in time is a big problem.

In the Nanyang waters, there are many storms in summer and autumn, and the area where Luzhou is located is the first to be hit, so the safe navigation season for sea ships is usually in winter and spring.

At this time, ordinary sailing boats would be affected by the wind direction, and they would not be so "as they want" during the time of Fanyu, Longbian and Luzon.

A large amount of raw food, grain and materials were transported to Luzon, and a large amount of gold, silver and copper were transported back to the Central Plains because the shipping could not be "as he pleased", and the transportation efficiency was much lower.

Now, propeller propulsion has been practical, and a large number of paddle steamers will be converted into propeller ships, which has much stronger navigation capabilities. Therefore, sea ships from Fanyu, Longbian and Luzon will sooner or later become steam sailing ships with dual-purpose use, and the sooner it is put into shipping, the better.

Feng Ann knew the results of the last trial. The propeller-propelled sea ship (dual-use sails) does not rely on wind power. When sea conditions are normal (and no interference from ocean currents), the average navigation speed on the sea can be more than 30 miles per hour.

The nearly 2,500-mile voyage from Luzon to Fanyu, a propeller-propelled steamship relies on the ship to carry coal and cross the sea directly. It can be completed in at most five days, which is much faster than a sailing boat taking traditional routes.

This means that it is more convenient to transport personnel and materials across the sea. As soon as possible, the Feng family's industry in Luzhou can make a lot of money.

Feng Ang made outstanding achievements in his tenure as Luzhou, opening up gold, silver and copper mines for the imperial court. Gold, silver and copper produced in Luzhou were continuously imported into the Central Plains, and the Luzon region gradually became prosperous, with a large number of immigrants settling in the city.

Luzon is becoming an important trading port, and more and more immigrants from the Central Plains (including Lingnan). Feng Ang's political achievements are enough to allow him to rank a good position in the "qualification" of the Ministry of Personnel.

After the imperial court is reorganized next year, the general administration will become a "dao" and the governor will become a "magistrate", and Feng Ang should also be transferred and serve elsewhere.

People no longer work in Luzhou, but the Feng family's industry is still there, both public and private, so why can't Feng Ang care about the development of shipping?

He felt that it would be best for the steamboat that burns oil to be practical as soon as possible.

Nanyang Trading Company's experiments show that coal-burning propeller machine-sail dual-purpose ships consume a large amount of coal, so the coal-burning ships that sail across the sea basically account for more than one-sixth of their own load capacity, which will affect the load capacity of the cargo.

If the fuel-sail dual-purpose vessel under test can be practical, the fuel occupies a significant reduction in the "cabin space" and sea ships of the same size can carry more cargo.

When the idea of ​​a dual-purpose ship (burning oil) across the Nanyang route becomes a reality, the oil fields of Poli Country will bring you huge profits, including the Feng family, after all, their family has also invested a lot of money in the Poli Country Oilfield project.

Thinking of this, Feng Ang asked again: "What is the expected output of the oil fields in Poli Country next year?"

Lu Ji replied: "The output tripled from this year should be achieved next year. The company wants to allow the people in the Huaihe River and Jiangnan to buy affordable foreign oil, and let the oil lamps burn foreign oil illuminate thousands of households."

"Foreign oil? This name is interesting."

"That's right, it's easy to remember and special. When you talk about it, you will know that it's Nanyang tincture sold by Nansi. How can ordinary people remember Poli essence tincture oil?"

Speaking of this, Lu Ji added: "When the imperial court and the Persian state in the West and the Roman state have reached an agreement, the name of the Great Zhou foreign goods will be launched in the West."

"Old Lu, can the Persian and Roman countries really listen to the advice of the court?"

Feng Ann knew about the court's envoys to Persia and Rome, and knew that the court wanted to mediate the dispute between the two countries and do big business together, but he was not sure whether this plan could be realized.
Chapter completed!