Chapter 458 - 210: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Chapter 458: Chapter 210: Light at the End of the Tunnel

The inspection team from Southern Power Group came and went, as quietly as they arrived, without a single contract to show for it.

In the end, it seemed the microbial fuel cell technology and the power grid system were not meant to be. Its application and method of acquiring raw materials made it unsuitable for peak shaving in the power grid.

While the generation cost of microbial fuel cells could be compressed down to 0.12-0.15 yuan per kilowatt-hour once scaled up, cost was not the primary factor for the power grid. Stability was.

The power grid favored technologies that offered both stable power generation and a stable fuel supply.

And although microbial fuel cell technology could generate power stably if applied to large-scale farms, those farms would not easily sell their livestock waste unless they built the microbial fuel cell power stations themselves.

Moreover, Southern Power Group had considered another issue: if used as a peak-shaving power station, it would mean the station would be operating at low efficiency for more than half the time, which would indirectly increase costs.

The power grid was not a power generation company, after all. Why should they sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others?

Build a peak-shaving power station just to make things cheaper for those new energy generation companies?

After much consideration, Southern Power concluded it would be cheaper to just restrict the grid access quotas for new energy companies.

The root of the issue was that while microbial fuel cell technology could be used for peak shaving, it came at a cost—a cost the power grid was unwilling to bear.

The new energy generation companies were not interested either. It was not out of arrogance; many of them had already studied Hailufeng Company’s technology a while back.

They found its power output too low. While the scale could be expanded by adding more cell units, doing so was predicated on finding a large, stable supply of organic matter. This was the fundamental reason these new energy companies backed off.

The team from Southern Power left.

Other new energy companies were deterred.

But this did not mean other industries would remain indifferent.

With the exception of Wens Group, which used a semi-free-range model, all other domestic pig farming enterprises discovered—after studying the microbial fuel cell technology—that it was practically tailor-made for the large-scale farming industry.

Soon, New Hope Group, Muyuan Stock, and Shuangbaotai Group all sent professional teams to the Hailufeng Company Headquarters to inspect the technology.

It was not that other companies were not interested; rather, Hailufeng Company had posted a notice on its official website stating that the technology would not be shared with foreign enterprises.

Furthermore, even in the case of a partnership, production bases could only be located domestically. Additionally, these production bases would have to be controlled by Hailufeng Company, with no unauthorized visits or removal of materials allowed.

In reality, the power-generating bacteria currently in use was a second-generation version jointly improved by Jiang Miao and Lin Shuya. This Gen-2 bacteria possessed a special self-apoptosis mechanism. Without a supply of special nutrients, the bacteria would rapidly die off during their reproductive cycle.

This mechanism served a dual purpose: to prevent the bacteria from leaking into the environment and to prevent the technology from being stolen.

It was also Hailufeng Company’s leverage over the other farming enterprises.

The core of the entire microbial fuel cell technology was the fast-reproducing, power-generating bacteria. Without the special starter culture packs produced by Hailufeng Company, any power-generating bacteria already in a microbial fuel cell would die off on their own after twenty days of reproduction, making it impossible to use them as a starter for new cultures.

Jiang Miao had no intention of collaborating with foreign companies because he had no intention of arming the enemy.

The microbial fuel cell technology was actually very suitable for regions with underdeveloped industrial bases. Even without large-scale farms, stable power could be generated using dead branches and fallen leaves from forests or straw from farmland.

Although Hailufeng Company stated the designed lifespan of the cell units was thirty years, the system could actually run for centuries with proper maintenance. As long as the graphite plates, manganese monoxide electrodes, and some electronic components and sensors were replaced every thirty years, it could continue to operate.

After all, the core component of the cell unit was its ceramic inner lining. Unless it was smashed or struck, the ceramic lining could easily be used for several hundred years without any major issues.

The plastic outer shell would degrade over time, but the process was very slow. It would last at least thirty years without issue and could also be replaced periodically.

The microbial fuel cell technology had a very special characteristic: its other systems could be simplified or even completely omitted.

For example, components like sensors and electronic control systems could be done away with, leaving just a simple transformer-rectifier system and the cell units to make it work.

This meant the microbial fuel cells could still be used in very rudimentary conditions.

That was why Jiang Miao had deliberately made the bacterial strain unable to reproduce normally and added a host of special environmental requirements—all to increase the difficulty of replicating the technology.

Admittedly, Jiang Miao’s actions would prevent people in other underdeveloped regions from obtaining cheap and convenient electricity. But he had never been someone who treated everyone equally, nor could he bring himself to love all of humanity.

He was a normal person with a normal person’s joys and sorrows, likes and dislikes. It was only natural.