Spark

"The metal hydrogen application project will be launched on a large scale, and the synthesis route has not yet been announced."

"International public opinion reacted fiercely, shouldn't superconducting technology be exclusive?"

"The EAST project is open to all countries, why is the metal hydrogen technology still not open?"

Just as Chen Nian expected, after the metal hydrogen application project was officially launched, the standard caliber of public opinion immediately turned, and quickly gained the approval of a large number of forces.

——

If you think about it, something like room temperature superconductivity, to a certain extent, is even more meaningful than nuclear fusion, which is regarded by most people as the savior of civilization.

If this kind of technology is in the hands of a small country, how dare you not make it public?

First prepare a 200-page paper and send it to the top journal, and explain the preparation method bit by bit. If half of the data is not clear, you will be greeted by Wuchang one by one, "Why don't you wear a hat".

But now, the technology is in the hands of the second largest gangster, and it is unwilling to disclose it, so you really have nothing to do.

beat?

With a hammer, you can snatch something from a small country because you can guarantee absolute destruction.

But when hooligans fight hooligans, the best result is to destroy each other. What good does it do you?

Sanctions, withdrawal of confession?

Then there must be a goal, and if you make random moves, you will suffer instead.

So basically, hardball doesn't work.

You can't force it, you can't control it with a few complaints, right?

After all, some things are so powerful that even if you are Mr. Huang Shiren, you still have to see if the people below have eaten.

——

But the weird thing about this matter is that Huaxia seems to have anticipated these possible situations long ago.

Metal hydrogen is not given to you, but we always let you participate in nuclear fusion, right?

All the theoretical results of plasma control are public. If you have the ability, you can go back and make a tokamak yourself, and no one will stop it.

And there are signs that Huaxia also plans to release it publicly after the results of the first wall materials are released later.

Generally speaking, the current situation is that everyone has to beg for food under the EAST project, or to put it bluntly, everyone is counting on the Xinghuo team to enjoy the food. You say you are hungry, but you don’t want to be full. . seems to be about to do something.

Crying is one method, but at the same time, some people have begun to try to use more "radical" methods.

In a spacious conference room in Moscow, four middle-aged men in suits and ties sit in an office with nothing on their desks, as if they were just sitting and chatting after a boring routine meeting.

But in fact, their topic is not women, family or children's education, but Russia's largest export project in the past two decades.

Export projects for China.

Among the four, three are from the Gas Industry Joint-Stock Company, the Ministry of Energy, and the Ministry of Natural Resources Management, while the other is the largest middleman between China and Russia, Marokov.

In the past few years, he has contributed to a series of projects including fourth-generation aircraft, strategic bombers, etc. The success of these projects has benefited Russia a lot. The military, which was almost desperate for new weapons, got the bombers they were thinking of. And several research institutes also got the engine technology they wanted.

Therefore, as an undisputed project, Marokov's status has also risen. Now he has jumped from a "not so important" businessman to the diplomatic system. There are even rumors that he may become the next Minister of Foreign Affairs.

And his appearance in this conversation actually represents the importance of this project.

".According to the current negotiation results with Huaxia, we have been able to preliminarily determine the other party's intention."

"The other party's request is to build two natural gas pipelines in the Far East and Siberia, respectively, to transport 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Huaxia every year."

"In addition to being used for energy purposes, these natural gas will also be provided to their newly built hydrogen production plant for the production of liquid hydrogen and subsequent metal hydrogen products."

"The contract period is initially set at 30 years, and the total contract value is about 180 billion U.S. dollars."

Having said that, Marokov raised his hand to stop the head of the Energy Bureau who wanted to intervene, and then continued:

"Yes, the contract amount is relatively low compared to normal business practices."

"But we all know that the significance of this contract is definitely not as simple as 'making money'."

"Metal hydrogen is the most important product of science and technology in this century and even since mankind entered the industrial society, and it will inevitably lead the direction of mankind in the next few hundred years."

"According to the attitude of Huaxia, we are likely to be forced to be under the other party's 'technical monopoly' for a long time in the future, but if we can reach a cooperation with the other party in terms of raw materials, we will be able to pull close to the opponent's gap."

"So, this business we had to do, and arguably, should do gratefully."

"After all, we are not the only country that proposes a natural gas supply plan."

"Including the United States, Australia, and Canada, they have all proposed plans to exchange natural gas resources for technology."

"What is even more exaggerated is Qatar --- they even proposed to sign a purchase contract with China for a large natural gas carrier first, and then sign a natural gas export contract."

"That is, if we only send one piece of money, they send two."

"The reason why I want to do this is to buy a ticket for my country, and board the big ship of China before the flood of metal hydrogen and nuclear fusion floods the land of traditional fossil energy."

"If they can make such a decision, I think we have nothing to hesitate."

"Here, I don't want to talk to you about the so-called price issue. There is only one core issue we face: can we provide enough natural gas to Huaxia before those big ships floating on the sea?"

Hearing his words, the other three people present all fell silent.

After a long time, Stanislav, the head of the Energy Bureau, said:

"This question... I definitely can't answer it."

"I can only say that several large natural gas fields in Siberia are ready. If necessary, we can immediately dispatch them. It is not difficult to meet the other party's requirement of 11 billion cubic meters."

"But in fact, you also know that production is not the key to the problem. How to build these two huge natural gas pipelines is the most difficult thing."

"With our current infrastructure capacity, it is almost impossible to complete such a huge project"

"Don't worry."

Hearing his words, Marokov waved his hand and said:

"Huaxia will mainly undertake the construction work of this project. We will jointly fund the establishment of the Sino-Russian Natural Gas Pipeline Company with them, and subcontract the specific construction work of the project to Huaxia Energy Construction."

"The main construction force of China Energy Construction comes from a number of state-owned construction companies. They have rich experience in this field and almost don't need our intervention at all."

"Then why are we still discussing this?"

Stanislav asked inexplicably.

Huaxia sent people, Huaxia contributed, and they were responsible for all the design and construction work. So what did Marokov mean by "guaranteeing the progress of the project"?

"Because we're paying for the construction work."

"What are you kidding?!"

Having said that, even Vladimir, the representative of the Natural Gas Industry Co., Ltd. who has been watching, can't sit still.

The absurdity of this thing is like .

Someone bought a piece of bread worth 5 rubles, but as the owner of the store, he charged him two rubles, and then he had to call a taxi for 10 rubles to take the customer home.

Is this a business?

This is purely for charity!

No, not even for charity.

For philanthropy would at least gain a good name, but what would Russia gain in this deal?

An illusory future anticipation?

Seeing his expression, Marokov shook his head helplessly.

Although in the past few years, due to the subtle influence of China, these "superiors" of myself have indeed undergone some changes, but in the final analysis, these vegetarians still have not made any progress in their "foresight".

I'm kidding?

Is there room for joking on such a momentous matter?

So he opened his mouth and said:

"I don't mean any joke."

"In fact, Huaxia has come up with a preliminary plan. According to the results of the first version of the estimated budget, the construction cost of the eastern pipeline is about 60 billion US dollars, and the cost of the western pipeline is 75 billion US dollars."

"But we need to give priority to ensuring that the pipeline is completed. In fact, there is only the eastern route."

"After the eastern route pipeline is completed and starts to deliver natural gas to Huaxia, the series of technical assistance they promised will begin to materialize."

"I might as well put it bluntly: once the pipeline is completed, we will be able to obtain metal hydrogen, and it will be more than 60% of the share that is second only to China's own share."

"I think you should be able to judge what kind of concept this is."

The impact of this condition made Vladimir shut up immediately.

Even if he doesn't understand materials science or how metal hydrogen is produced, he fully understands how much advantage this thing can bring to a country once it is mass-produced.

Not to mention anything else, just those few metal-hydrogen missiles have made many countries panic?

Not to mention the various more advanced aerospace technologies that may be realized in the future.

Even if it cannot be used in the civilian field immediately, the sudden increase in military strength can continue the glory of this country for decades.

"How much can I get?"

he asked instead.

"I don't know, we haven't talked about specific conditions in this regard."

"However, we can make some plausible extrapolations."

"According to Huaxia's current plan, they will build more than four large-scale metal hydrogen plants within two years, and the annual output of each plant will reach more than 120,000 tons."

"That is to say, based on the hydrogen production efficiency of the steam reforming method, these four plants need to consume about 2.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year."

"As for the use of energy, Huaxia needs to consume about 3 to 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas imported from our country every year."

"Of the 11 billion cubic meters of supply that we have negotiated, at least 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be used to make metallic hydrogen."

"It can be inferred that after completion, the other side's annual average metal hydrogen production will reach at least 300,000 tons—and considering the efficiency and scale of electrolytic hydrogen production and coal-to-hydrogen production, this amount will probably reach about 800,000 tons."

"And in their development plan, the field of strong electricity that requires a huge amount of metal hydrogen does not occupy too high a priority, and the amount of metal hydrogen they actually need to use will not be too high."

"Just tell me the result."

Vladimir asked impatiently.

He was already a little impatient with Marokov's seemingly reasonable inference.

What's the use of saying this? Even if your inference is completely correct, so what?

How much you can get depends on the mood of the Huaxia people?

Marokov paused, and gave an answer that caught everyone's eyes.

"At least 50,000 tons can be obtained."

enough!

Although this scale is simply a drop in the bucket for large-scale civilian use, it is more than enough for some special fields.

Strong electricity can't be done, magnetic levitation can't be done, so let's do weak electricity first!

Or, simply focus on the military industry first, build a few fourth-generation nuclear vehicles, build a few electric supersonic aircraft, and build a few recyclable spacecraft.

Thinking of this, Vladimir immediately looked at the other two around him.

"What's your suggestion?"

he asked.

The representative of the natural gas group immediately nodded - anyway, these are state resources, and the group does not need to bear the responsibility for profit and loss, all he needs to do is nod.

The Ministry of Natural Resources Management originally came here to make a formality, and of course there was no objection.

So, in the case of unanimous approval, the four people in the office laughed knowingly at the same time.

As if they had just achieved the unthinkable.

"This project seems to be losing money, but in fact, we have earned too much"

Vladimir said with emotion.

"Yes, being able to take the lead in new materials is the result of no amount of economic benefits."

"The Yankees really took a lot of wrong steps. If they knew that Huaxia could make such great progress, would they have pressed Huaxia every step of the way a few years ago?"

"Of course not. However, Marokov contributed a lot to us being able to get to this point."

The eyes of the three looked at Marokov at the same time.

Yes, if he hadn’t given correct advice many times, I am afraid that the story would have been completely rewritten after the AL-31FN engine and the relationship between the two parties fell into a delicate situation.

At this time, Marokov also felt emotional.

These 8 years have been like a strange journey, and he doesn't even know how he got to this point.

Perhaps, this is also a kind of national luck.

A specific consensus was reached, and Marokov had nothing more to talk about, but just as he was about to get up, there was a knock on the door of the office.

Then, his assistant came over and said with an ugly face:

"We may be getting ahead of Qatar."

"They offered extremely exaggerated conditions. Mr. Marokov, see for yourself."