Chapter 9: Blast Furnace
Agriculture is the foundation of all industry. After all, people can only think about other things once their stomachs are full and they have enough to eat.
At this stage, Li Qingsong had achieved a preliminary solution to the agricultural problem, producing enough food to support a number of Clones without them needing to engage in agricultural production.
Developing industry had therefore become an inevitability.
Without industry, the scale of agriculture would also be limited, forever stuck in a state of inefficient manual labor. Expanding the population would be a pipe dream.
After a quick assessment of his current population and agricultural scale, Li Qingsong combined it with his future development plans and quickly formulated a new strategy.
’Steel is the foundation for all future development.
To continue expanding the population and developing industry, steel is indispensable.
Even if I only focus on agriculture and not industry, I can’t do without steel.
The planting racks, pipes, and removable components from the Deep Space Spaceship have all been used up.
Without a sufficient supply of steel, I can’t even build a new planting base.
The current output of Planting Base No. 1 is just barely enough to support 37 Clones. How is that enough?
So... I’ll build a blast furnace! Besides, my preliminary surveys showed that there’s iron ore on Ceres. The reserves aren’t large, but they’re more than enough for me.’
The knowledge base did not contain the technology for building a blast furnace, but with the basic principles available, Li Qingsong could design one himself. That wasn’t a problem.
In addition to technical data, there were two other pieces of equipment on the Deep Space Spaceship that could support the steel requirements for manufacturing the blast furnace itself.
One of these was a multi-function intelligent ore-refining unit. It could smelt and purify various types of minerals according to parameters set by Li Qingsong.
Of course, being multi-functional meant it wasn’t very large, and its efficiency was far worse than that of specialized equipment. However, it was sufficient as a starter unit.
The other device was a multi-function metal fabrication unit.
It could process various types of metal into different shapes according to set parameters.
These two machines had been specially prepared for Li Qingsong by the original team from Earth. This way, should he encounter certain extreme situations, Li Qingsong could fabricate some of his own parts.
Although parts he fabricated himself would certainly not match the performance of those from professional equipment, they would do in a pinch.
Now, Li Qingsong planned to use these two machines to produce steel bit by bit, process parts one by one, and ultimately ’bootstrap’ a blast furnace into existence.
The technology for building a blast furnace was not in the Deep Space Spaceship’s knowledge base.
After all, it was highly unlikely that Li Qingsong, in his former role as an astronaut, would ever have needed such technology.
But thankfully, the knowledge base did contain the relevant fundamental scientific principles.
So, the two Clones aboard the Deep Space Spaceship once again began to study day and night, all while awaiting the birth of the five newest Clones.
Some time later, the five new Clones were finally born, bringing the total population under Li Qingsong’s command to 22. The blueprints for the blast furnace he had designed were also finally complete.
Afterward, he carefully transported the two crucial pieces of equipment from the Deep Space Spaceship to Ceres. He painstakingly assembled them and connected them to Generator No. 2’s power supply.
When he had built Generator No. 2, Li Qingsong had already considered the future power needs of these two devices and had intentionally left some surplus capacity. Thus, this additional power demand would not affect crop growth.
Once the self-check was complete and the operating parameters were set, some iron ore—which had been brought back incidentally during the collection of Oxygen Ore and Tolin ore—was crushed into small pieces and fed into the smelting furnace.
Electrical energy was converted into thermal energy, melting the ore. Then, through a series of processes, the iron element was purified. A certain proportion of carbon, chromium, nickel, and other elements was added, finally transforming it into cryogenic steel that could maintain its performance in the low temperatures of Ceres.
This slab of cryogenic steel, with a total mass of 30 kg, was placed into the metal fabrication unit.
Following the preset parameters, the cryogenic steel was processed into various components of all shapes and sizes.
The parts varied in size and weight, some large, some small, some light, some heavy.
Following the blueprints he had designed, the Clones slowly pieced and welded the parts together, eventually forming something that resembled a large tank.
This "large tank" stood three meters high with a diameter of one and a half meters. It used electricity as its power source, but every other aspect was manually controlled.
Everything from temperature control to feeding, discharging, and monitoring had to be done manually by the Clones. After all, Li Qingsong currently had no automation technology whatsoever.
According to its design specifications, the blast furnace could produce an average of about 200 kilograms of steel per day when operating at full power, for an annual output of 73 tons.
On Earth—if there were still any humans left on Earth, that is—this output would probably be scorned by even the smallest village steel workshop. But for Li Qingsong at this moment, it was a divine artifact.
An artifact capable of kickstarting his industrial revolution.
Looking at the crude blast furnace, covered in rough marks, Li Qingsong’s heart was filled with joy.
It was as if he could see a continuous stream of molten steel flowing from this furnace, transforming into planting racks, into components, into massive machines...
But... unfortunately, the blast furnace could not be put into use just yet.
The reason was simple: it consumed too much power.
Its power consumption reached 80 kilowatts. At present, the combined total output of his two generators was just over 40 kilowatts. It wasn’t enough even if he dedicated all of it to the furnace.
Moreover, steel production also required a sufficient supply of ore.
Given the quality of the iron ore on Ceres, producing 200 kilograms of iron per day would require a daily supply of at least 600 kilograms of iron ore.
Currently, the entire mining team of five miners only brought back a total of 400 kilograms of Tolin ore and Oxygen Ore per day on average. It wouldn’t be enough even if they hauled nothing but iron ore.
There was no other choice. Although the blast furnace was built, Li Qingsong could only let it sit idle for now and turn his attention to building something else.
A steam generator with sufficient installed capacity.
The principle of a generator was also simple; it was merely a matter of making a rotor spin around a stator.
Li Qingsong had no desire to build two separate machines—a steam turbine and a generator.
He planned to combine the two into one, directly building a single steam generator unit.
This would reduce the amount of work and also be slightly more efficient.
The multi-function ore-refining unit once again began producing standard-compliant steel plates, and the fabrication unit processed them into parts.
Then, a total of eight Clones worked together to assemble and secure these components.
After another busy month, the 150-kilowatt steam generator was finally complete.