Chapter 351 - 348: Water and Salt

Suez Branch.

4.6 kilometers southeast of Kom Ombu City.

After more than ten days of construction, the Gobi Desert New District had already undergone a massive transformation.

Meanwhile, the Juxi-1 had also completed its excavation work on the canal's dual carriageway and had returned to Hongku Port, where it was currently undergoing maintenance.

With the opening of the canal's dual carriageway between Hongku Port and Kom Ombu City, the shipping schedule, which previously ran once every eight hours, could now be increased to once every two hours.

Of course, this also required an increase in the unloading speed at the temporary docks; otherwise, the frequency could be improved even further.

However, back in the Gobi Desert New District, the person in charge, Hu Mingliang, wasn't paying much attention to the dock area. After all, without a Juxi-class canal dredger, they couldn't move much earth with just excavators. He was therefore focusing on the construction of the Gobi Desert New District's supporting infrastructure.

For instance, there was the water purification plant that had just been assembled using modular equipment.

On one side of the Gobi Desert, there was a mountain col with relatively high terrain. A few small hills ranged from 173 to 192 meters in height, with a small basin in the middle covering an area of about 4.9 square kilometers.

After a survey by Ujima Beiyang, the head of the planning team, he determined that this col could be used to build a water reservoir.

As for the reservoir's water source, it would come from the seawater in the canal.

The water purification plant was now operational.

The roof of the water purification plant was covered with a vast array of solar panels. These panels were arranged in a concentric circle, reflecting a portion of the sunlight onto a molten salt heat storage tower in the center.

This kind of tropical desert region was perfectly suited for installing solar panels.

In the tropical desert area of Suez, the air was dry, the skies were perpetually clear, and there were about 8 to 11 hours of sunlight each day. The annual solar irradiance per square meter could reach 2,000 to 3,000 kilowatt-hours.

The water purification plant's solar power system was a composite photovoltaic and photothermal system, which solved the shortcoming of photovoltaic panels only being able to generate electricity during the day.

Currently, the plant's solar power system covered an area of 400,000 square meters and could generate 240 megawatt-hours of electricity per day.

The plant's water purification system, on the other hand, used Homo Sapiens Company's exclusive water purification technology: Bio-Nanostructure Osmosis.

The main characteristics of this technology were that the osmosis layer was very inexpensive to produce and had a service life of about 17 months.

Furthermore, another feature of the technology was that the water molecules could be accelerated through the osmosis layer by applying pressure, which increased output while saving space on equipment.

At present, the water purification system could produce 5,000 cubic meters of pure water per hour, for a total of 120,000 cubic meters per day.

Hu Mingliang stood outside the pressurization chamber.

The plant manager, Huang Chongxin, pointed to either side of the chamber. "Manager, this is the temporary storage pool for purified water, and this is the brine storage pool."

"How much brine is produced each day?"

"Around 4,200 to 4,400 tons per day. The salinity of the Red Sea is quite high."

Hu Mingliang stroked his beard. 'We have to find a way to deal with this brine.'

"The higher-ups have planned for supporting facilities, but the equipment is still in Hongku Port. It will take about five days to transport it to Kom Ombo," Huang Chongxin replied.

Hu Mingliang's assistant took out a tablet and looked up the shipping status of the supporting factory's equipment. "It is indeed in Hongku Port. Should I urge them to hurry?"

"No. The transportation department has all its tasks scheduled. Cutting in line would be inappropriate. Don't bring this up again," Hu Mingliang rejected the idea outright.

"Sorry, I understand," the rookie assistant quickly apologized.

Hu Mingliang turned his head. "Old Huang, you'll also be managing the supporting factory. By the way, how many temporary workers can your plant take on?"

"Temporary workers? Hmm..." Huang Chongxin thought for a moment. "Around 20 to 30 people. They're mainly needed for cleaning the solar panels and for the brine processing plant."

"Alright, let's make it 25, then."

"Sounds good. I'll arrange for a team leader as soon as possible."

The two chatted for a while, when Huang Chongxin suddenly remembered something. "Manager, you'll need to arrange for a team to handle the output from the brine processing plant."

"I'll assign a team specifically to handle the salt bricks."

With 4,200 to 4,400 tons of impure salt being produced daily, it was naturally impossible to process it all into table salt or industrial salt; the demand simply wasn't high enough.

At this rate, a single plant would generate over a million tons of impure salt per year, and this was just one of many.

In Homo Sapiens Company's plan, they were set to invest in and build 80 new cities in Suez. These cities would all need water purification plants, which would eventually produce several hundred million tons of impure salt annually.

Clearly, the markets for table salt and industrial salt could not absorb this level of production.

But if left untreated, it would take up space and could even contaminate the surrounding land.

Therefore, after developing the purification technology, Homo Sapiens Company began to consider how to repurpose this waste salt. After much deliberation, they finally turned to the construction sector.

By adding an aluminum alloy mesh, along with a coagulant and a structural enhancer, the impure salt was compressed into bricks.

In other places, it would be difficult to use these compressed salt bricks in construction.

But where was this?

This was a tropical desert region, with high temperatures, little rain, and dry air year-round. The salt bricks wouldn't absorb moisture and dissolve, nor would they be washed away by rain.

Of course, considering the structural strength issues of salt bricks, Homo Sapiens Company had not approved their use for high-rise buildings, or even for urban construction in general.

For now, the purpose of these salt bricks was to build simple roads, especially those passing through desert areas, where they could be used to pave the foundation and surface.

In any case, there was no issue of soil contamination in these desert regions. They just had to avoid using the salt bricks in the Nile River's River Valley Plain and delta plains.

In addition, roads in the seawater-rice cultivation areas could also be paved with salt bricks. After all, those areas would already be salinized land, so there was no need to worry about further soil salinization.

Thus, this impure salt could be repurposed for road construction in the Sahara Desert Area.

「Elsewhere.」

Inside the employee dormitory area of the Gobi Desert New District.

As soon as their shifts ended, a crowd of employees rushed back to their rooms.

The past few days had been unbearable. Although the New Humans were highly adaptable, many still struggled to adjust after moving from the tropical rainforests and monsoonal regions of Southeast Asia to the tropical desert of Suez.

The issue of bathing, for example.

In Southeast Asia, bathing once a day was standard, and two or three times a day was also quite common.

But here in the water-scarce desert of Suez, bathing even once a day was a luxury.

However, Homo Sapiens Company was very concerned about the well-being of its employees.

As soon as the water purification plant became operational, the dormitory area opened its shower rooms and swimming pools.

A dozen or so local temporary workers who had just joined Homo Sapiens Company were led to the swimming pool by their team leader.

"Don't just stand there gawking. Go get changed."

As if waking from a dream, the temporary workers hurried to the locker room to change, then followed their leader to a small swimming pool.

The cool, pure water was refreshing, washing away all their fatigue.

A young local temp asked curiously, "Team Leader! How much does it cost to swim in a pool like this?"

"It's free. It's one of the employee benefits. The infrastructure here isn't great, but back in Johor, I used to swim every day."

"It's free?" Many of the temporary workers were shocked.

After all, in their previous lives, indoor swimming pools like this were a luxury only the wealthy could enjoy. Ordinary people could, at most, go for a swim in the Nile River.

"Don't make a big deal out of it. This is just a small perk."

The group of temporary workers grew even more envious of the life at Homo Sapiens Company.