34: Chapter 34 The First Chimney of the Great Qin Dynasty Rises!

"Leader!"

Cui Wenzi had never heard this title before, but he understood that it was used to address Zhao Fusu.

"The Leader is truly talented!"

Cui Wenzi said to Zhao Fusu with a look of admiration.

Although the person before him was young, the fact that he possessed such ingenuity was truly remarkable.

"Master Cui, look."

Zhao Fusu took out a piece of white cloth.

On it was a cross-sectional diagram of an enlarged coking oven drawn with charcoal.

Cui Wenzi looked at this cross-sectional diagram with curious eyes.

He had never seen such a diagram before.

Cui Wenzi was a smart man; he did not ask Zhao Fusu what this strange building was intended for.

Judging by the fact that Zhang Han had made him sign a non-disclosure agreement, with the penalty of beheading for any violation, he knew that this building the Leader had him construct was highly classified and a secret that could not be leaked.

He carefully examined the cross-sectional diagram of the coking oven, where every structure was labeled in Small Seal Script.

For example, the carbonization chamber, fire bed, combustion chamber, heat storage chamber, flue area, furnace roof, foundation, flue, and chimney.

Cui Wenzi couldn't help but be curious about what these strange structures were for.

Cui Wenzi suppressed his curiosity and examined it carefully.

In his mind, he reconstructed the 3D structure based on these components.

Zhao Fusu waited patiently on the side until Cui Wenzi moved his gaze away from the coking oven diagram and looked at him, at which point he asked: "How is it?"

"No problem."

Cui Wenzi replied with a smile.

He habitually unscrewed the cap of his gourd and took a swig.

This strange building had cost him quite a few brain cells.

"Good."

"Master Cui."

Zhao Fusu handed the cross-sectional diagram of the coking oven to Cui Wenzi and said: "I will leave the construction of the coking oven to you."

"As long as you build the coking oven for me, I will reward you with two gold."

Two gold was equivalent to 370,000.

To ensure Cui Wenzi took it seriously, Zhao Fusu was willing to spend money.

"Thank you, Leader."

Cui Wenzi's eyes lit up.

He said: "This commoner will definitely build the coking oven for the Leader with the fastest speed."

"Hmm."

Zhao Fusu nodded.

Cui Wenzi did not disappoint Zhao Fusu; he personally selected a group of experienced civil craftsmen, and in less than two days, helped Zhao Fusu build the coking oven.

Watching the chimney rise higher and higher under the hands of the craftsmen, Zhao Fusu's face was filled with excitement.

This was the first chimney of the Great Qin.

Zhao Fusu did not go back on his word and had Zhang Han give Cui Wenzi's team one hundred gold.

Zhao Fusu also led the technical team, including Old Liu and Old Yang, to begin the Great Qin Empire's first coal coking process.

The coking oven was complex, but the coking principle was very simple: it was the reaction process produced by heating coal in the carbonization chamber to about 1,000 degrees Celsius in the absence of air.

It was a process of producing coke, coke oven gas, and other coking chemical products through thermal decomposition and coking.

The produced coke was the core fuel and reducing agent for blast furnace steelmaking, and also served as the support and loosening agent for the blast furnace burden column.

Its byproduct, coke oven gas, had a very high calorific value and was an excellent gaseous fuel for open-hearth furnaces and heating furnaces. Other byproducts were also extremely important.

Zhao Fusu held the industrial encyclopedia and looked at the key points of coal coking.

Before coal coking could begin, coal washing was required. This meant washing the raw coal before coking to reduce the ash content and remove other impurities in the coal.

Afterward came coal blending. Various coals with different coking properties were mixed in a certain proportion before coking.

This required someone to conduct experiments and keep records to understand the coking conditions of various coals. This was not difficult, so Zhao Fusu put A'da in charge of it.

The third step was tamping. This involved feeding the coal evenly layer by layer, tamping it down, and then loading the tamped coal cake into the carbonization chamber.

The fourth step was coking. The blended coal was loaded into the carbonization chamber of the coking oven and heated for dry distillation through combustion chambers on both sides in the absence of air. After a certain period, coke was formed.

The fifth step was the wet quenching method, which involved sending the hot coke from the oven to a quenching tower to extinguish the fire, and then crushing, screening, and grading it to obtain coke products of different particle sizes.

Coke was generally screened into metallurgical coke greater than 35 millimeters, small coke, and coke breeze less than 15 millimeters.

Zhao Fusu followed these steps and directed the craftsmen to operate.

As the coal burned, a large amount of black smoke billowed out through the tall chimney.

After several practical operations, Zhao Fusu looked excitedly at the metallurgical coke with a diameter greater than 35 millimeters that had been screened out, and a smile appeared on his face.

Having obtained coke, he had taken an extremely important step in the coal-steel complex.

Next, it was time to start iron smelting using the blast furnace.

Zhao Fusu began the preparatory work, crushing and sintering iron ore with coke, plus auxiliary raw materials such as limestone, dolomite, and manganese ore.

The sintering machine he had obtained from signing in last time came in handy here.

He had people modify the blast furnace used for firing refractory bricks so it could be used for iron smelting.

The artificial iron ore, synthesized from coke, iron ore, and various auxiliary materials via the sintering machine, was fed into the blast furnace from the top.

The blast furnace's heating chamber began burning coal and wood for heating.

The Steam Engine started, and the blower blew hot air into the blast furnace along the tuyeres at the bottom.

Under prolonged high temperature, the carbon in the coke reacted with the oxygen blown in by the blower, producing carbon monoxide.

The artificial iron ore reacted with the gas inside the blast furnace, producing pig iron.

The impurities in the iron ore and other raw materials reacted further to form slag.

The molten iron at the bottom of the furnace was released intermittently and then poured into molten iron ladles, ready for the next step of processing.

The generated blast furnace gas was directed into a tank for storage.

Blast furnace gas could be used as fuel for equipment such as hot blast stoves, coking ovens, and boilers.

Slag was an important auxiliary material for cement production.

For Zhao Fusu, after producing steel, the next step was to make cement.

Old Liu looked at the black iron that had been smelted and said with an excited face: "Is this what iron looks like after its nirvana and sublimation!"

"No."

Zhao Fusu shook his head.

"This can only be considered cast iron; it contains relatively high amounts of elements like silicon, manganese, sulfur, and phosphorus. It is still very brittle and not suitable for forging."

"To turn it into steel, we still need to process it."

"We still need to use the alkaline open-hearth steelmaking method to refine the iron into steel!"

"Oh, oh."

Old Liu nodded, seemingly understanding.

"Let's go."

Zhao Fusu and the others arrived in front of the open-hearth furnace.

While they were coking and smelting iron, Zhao Fusu had already had Cui Wenzi's team build the open-hearth furnace.