Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Heart Blood

  The manager of Shangyao is a small man with a big face. After hearing Su Cheng's words, he hesitated and said: "This set of equipment is for export?"

  "We must use it ourselves and also export it. Otherwise, our investment over such a long period of time would be wasted."

  Shang Yao was confused and asked urgently: "So, does that mean we need two sets of equipment?"

  In their eyes, export equipment and domestic self-use equipment are naturally completely different. Foreigners have money, so they can use good materials and high-cost accessories, while domestic enterprises lack money, so they can only barely make do.

  Su Cheng continued shaking his head and said: "We'll just have one set of equipment, we'll try our best."

  "What a waste."

  Su Cheng said nothing, and then said, "Good equipment can increase production, otherwise what's the point of spending so much money on research?"

  "Being able to save a little is still something." Old Gu added from the side. He was already 50 years old, had experienced the three-year disaster and the era of extreme scarcity of materials, and had a strong attachment to frugality.

  Su Cheng smiled and said, "Old Gu, if the dispersing device of the polymer driver is not done well, the ratio error will be large, and the accuracy will be poor. The 3087 you worked hard to research will not be able to play its role, isn't that a waste?"

  Lao Gu used his rough hands to rub his head and chuckled: "This standard must be reached."

  Su Cheng turned his head and looked at Yao Zefan.

  The team leader of this device project forced a smile and asked: "Then our equipment, should we push it down and redo it?"

  "Not all of it." Su Cheng began to flip through the general assembly drawings.

  Something like a three-phase separator, its components are something that every petroleum student has to study and be tested on repeatedly. Being tested four times in four years is not an exaggeration at all.

  If Su Cheng were to make the entire transporter, it would take several days and require referencing many blueprints. However, when it comes to describing the pros and cons of a transporter and making improvements, he has done such tasks countless times before.

  It's just a 5-point short-answer question anyway.

  In just a few dozen words, Su Cheng is now describing the key points of the transmission device.

  He was reading while taking notes in shorthand on his notebook, which others couldn't understand.

  "After a while, Su Cheng raised his head and said: 'There are several problems with the imported polymer driving equipment from abroad that we need to avoid. First is the configuration of corresponding water supply pressurization equipment, second is the screw conveyor, and third is the structural problem of the valve. If we can solve these three problems well, then we can surpass them by replicating their equipment.'"

  Yao Zefan listened to him and also leaned over the drawing paper. After a while, he sighed continuously: "Director Su's vision is accurate, if these three parts can be improved, the effect will increase by at least 20%, but it's not easy to solve these three parts."

  "If it can increase by 40%, don't you think this difficulty is not?"

  The principle of polymer flooding is to dissolve the modified polyacrylamide with a dispersing device and inject it into an oil well, driving out crude oil.

  In this process, two goals are to be achieved. First, the viscosity of the oil is lowered so that it can be separated from the rock, and secondly, pressure is added to the reservoir. The best case scenario is when a well that has been treated with three cycles of EOR methods can have a period of self-flow, which is also the cheapest option.

  Since the polymer changes little, the key to polymerization lies in the dispersing device. It is necessary to follow the design idea and dissolve the solvent as perfectly as possible, so that it can fully play its role.

  This is more difficult even in a laboratory setting where precise solvent configuration is impossible.

  However, the more precise and continuous injection of solvent, the better the dissociation effect in the oil reservoir. In the 1980s, general tertiary recovery could extract 20% of the remaining oil reserves, an increase of 40% would mean an increase to 30%, which means tens of millions of tons of crude oil.

  Yao Zefan took another look at the "water pressure increasing equipment", "screw conveyor" and "valve system", and said, "If it can really increase by 40%, it's worth starting all over again. However, time is running out."

  Su Cheng waved his hand and said, "Time is what I'll consider, you just focus on the technical issues."

  He changed his tone and commented: "Screw conveyor, this has been said before, let's talk about the booster pump first. Zhongyuan Oilfield and Dagang Oilfield have purchased imported machinery, but they are still using the old domestic L59Z injection booster pump, which is not good, it's backward. The previous pumps had poor liquid supply capacity and dispersion dissolution device matching, and automatic control could not be completed. A new project team needs to be established to tackle the water booster equipment."

  "The head of the business let out a bitter laugh: 'Where can we still spare any manpower? These past two years, they've been pressing down on us tightly, and we've already put in all our available personnel.'"

  Su City looked at it, and the three oil extraction laboratories with less than 100 people were indeed overworked, and researchers couldn't squeeze time.

  He nodded and said: "I'll go find someone. Next is... then there's the problem with the valve structure..."

  Everyone in the project group listened intently, their pens not stopping. These were people who had been immersed in this project for several years, some of whom had studied chemical flooding for over 10 years, and they knew whether it was feasible or not just by listening.

  What Su Cheng said was all the experience of later generations. From a time perspective, it was also the advanced technology in the early 1990s. It may have appeared in foreign journals, but no one has systematically integrated them together.

  It's like spiral conveying and high-pressure hose conveying, there is no technical generation gap, but the latter is more convenient to use than the former.

  Companies that adopted the former persisted for a while but mostly returned to the high-pressure hose route until the end of this technology.

  These words of experience are exactly what Chinese researchers need. Su Cheng's speech was fluent, and everyone listened carefully.

  The Shangshu was surprised by Su's promise.

  As the deputy of the research institute, he ran to the headquarters of the oil field countless times, sometimes even going to Shandong and various ministries to ask for money. He deeply understood the difficulty of getting money, so he didn't dare make such a bold promise like Su Cheng did.

  The afternoon time flies.

  At 6 o'clock, Su Cheng suggested ending it, but everyone was reluctant to part with him, so they talked for another hour before letting him go.

  Although several small projects and a major project in the equipment department had to be revised as a result, no one held it against him.

  Designers all hope to create a perfect product, but most of the time, everyone is not clear where the defects are.

  Su Cheng can point it out and point it in the right place, everyone is naturally willing to accept it with an open mind.

  The next morning, when Su Cheng arrived at the institute, more than half of the researchers had already been working for over two hours.

  Yao Zefan's eyes were wide open, and on the table in front of him was a strong black tea.

  "Didn't go back?" Su Cheng first came to the equipment department, but saw that the powder conveying system had already been modified into a prototype, and the relevant drawings of the high-pressure rubber hose had all been drawn out, leaving only the various adjustments of the vibrating plate that needed to be calculated before being drawn.

  Yao Zefan took a sip of tea before speaking in a hoarse voice: "We have to make up for the lost time."

  Su Cheng was taken aback, this sentence felt extremely familiar.

  Behind him, Yu Jinxing from the same project team responded in unison: "Yes, think about when we worked in '77 and '78, that was really working hard. It's only been 10 years since then, and we've already become slack. I've decided to get up two hours earlier every day, come back one hour later, add a night shift every week, and eat lunch in the lab too - just you wait, I won't believe it if we can't make equipment better than those from Japan and America."

  Su Cheng stopped and said: "You are all not relaxed at all..."

  "Not slackening yet, eh, Old Yao, when was your last weekend overtime?"

  Yu Jinxing snorted and said, "I've heard that foreign research institutes also require overtime. The little devils' research institutes are especially ruthless, they all sleep in the lab, I'll move a bed over here too someday."

  "Old me, others are young and sleep in the office, besides, their conditions are good, no noise, and they have sleeping bags..."

  "I'm still young too." None of the researchers are easy to serve, like Yu Jinxing and Lao Gu's age, they can retire at any time, doing things with a willing heart, except for reasoning, no coercive measures work.

  Su Cheng didn't persuade anyone, and instead pulled Shang Yan over, saying: "Shang Suo, I'm leaving the ideological work to you. The old men can work overtime, but they can't stay up all night. If this matter is done well, I'll help you record a great achievement. It must succeed, it cannot fail."

  "Yes." Shang Xiao had received warnings from the hospital leaders several times, so he didn't dare to make trouble with the first thing. He immediately said to Yu Jinxing: "Old Yu, you can't get me into trouble, we've been friends for so many years, overtime is not allowed."

  "Alas, Director Su..." Yu Jinxing shouted, and was immediately pulled back by Shang Xiao.

  Su Cheng waved his hand and went to look at the blueprint himself.

  This morning was still mainly familiar with the situation. However, due to yesterday's familiarity, the researchers' attitude has completely changed.

  Although it's not like a professor in school being asked by students, when Su Cheng asks about a certain direction, everyone's explanations tend to be more professional rather than popularized.

  This made Su Cheng feel relieved and slightly struggling. After all, he was not a meticulous scholar, except for the general outline, he lacked the concept of detailed calculations such as "the relationship between piston diameter and power".

  However, everyone just thought he was being cautious with his words and didn't think much of it.

  It's easy to drag on until noon, when a loud horn from a truck outside the window rings out.

  Su Cheng let out a sigh of relief and emerged from the pile of papers, shouting: "Get two people to come with me to unload the truck."

  "What's wrong?"

  Gloves.

  "Is this it?" The people in the lab were greatly surprised.

  Shang Yao chimed in, "Director Su has emptied the warehouse of supplies. Some were meant to be sold by the rubber factory in Shanghai, but they've been seized too - a total of 100 boxes."

  As he spoke, he went downstairs and saw the driver standing tall, smoking a cigarette, with the back of the car filled with wooden crates and cardboard boxes.

  100 boxes don't sound like a lot, but when you actually see the goods, you realize how enormous the quantity is.

  "There are tens of thousands of gloves here, can we use them all up?" Old Gu's thrifty habit had relapsed.

  "Wear gloves as needed, throw them away when done. Voton rubber gloves are resistant to solvents and oil, CSM gloves only have a little, and there are also fingerless gloves, thumb sleeves, arm guards... even long-sleeved gloves, high-temperature and ultra-high temperature gloves, low-temperature gloves, electrical work gloves... everyone needs several pairs." Su Cheng pulled out the list from the car compartment and said: "After the director of the commercial department notifies everyone, disposable gloves will be used one pair at a time, after use they will be collected for treatment, and the drying boxes inside also need to be installed, specifically for rubber gloves and CSM gloves..."

  Everyone went forward and started moving boxes.

  Lao Guai picked up a box of rubber gloves, his eyes suddenly turned red, and he turned his head to say: "I've done it for a lifetime, at least before retirement, I can use gloves. In the past, I always wore gloves when touching my daughter, just in case I burned her face."

  He said that, and several researchers in their thirties with families of their own began to waver, unable to hold onto their posts.

  Su Cheng was stunned, before buying gloves, he didn't think of these things, just subconsciously felt that protective equipment should be increased... At this moment, thinking about it, these chemical researchers worked hard overtime to go home, their hands were covered with various chemicals, even if they washed them with water again and again, there would still be a burning sensation. Even if they wanted to hug the child again, how dare they? At most, they could only use their elbows to hold them.

  If one thinks about it extremely, it's just like what Lao Gu said, putting on gloves and touching the children's small faces.

  A pair of gloves, protecting not just hands, but also family.

  Looking up again at this three-story Soviet-style building, the blood and sweat it contains is no longer just a figure of speech.