In the Zhou family’s old house, the chat between father and son continues!

Zhou Yawen's brows suddenly furrowed when he heard his son asking him about work matters.

Speaking of his work in the northwest, it was actually a bit unsatisfactory.

"It's hard to say. At present, it seems that I won't be able to come back in a short time!"

Hearing this, Zhou Yang frowned.

He knew that his father went to work in the northwest region last year in response to the request of the Ministry of Chemical Industry. In addition, the period at Beijing University was really chaotic. In order to escape from that vortex, his father left the capital.

However, Zhou Yang knew very little about the specific work they were transferred to the northwest region and what tasks the Ministry of Chemical Industry had assigned them.

"Dad, can I ask what project you are mainly researching in Northwest China?"

Afterwards, Zhou Yang said again: "Of course, if you have any confidentiality requirements, you don't have to tell me!"

Zhou Yang is also engaged in scientific research, so he naturally knows that some scientific research tasks are highly confidential and he does not tell his parents, nor his wife and children.

Therefore, he does not want to embarrass his father!

Zhou Yawen smiled and said: "It's not a secret project, it's just research on potassium fertilizer over there!"

When Zhou Yang heard the word "potassium fertilizer", he nodded. It was indeed similar to what he thought.

In fact, Zhou Yang thought about this when his father was transferred to the northwest. At that time, he thought that the Ministry of Chemical Industry transferred his father to the northwest to study chemical fertilizers, and it was probably potassium fertilizer.

It's not that Zhou Yang has the ability to predict the unknown, but he inferred it based on his father's identity and the current national conditions.

Among the three major fertilizers needed for agriculture, nitrogen fertilizers and phosphorus fertilizers have been solved in China, while only potassium fertilizers are still in their infancy.

Moreover, compared with nitrogen fertilizer and phosphorus fertilizer, potassium fertilizer is more important, because potassium is an essential quality element for plant growth and development, and it can make crops grow stronger.

At the same time, it can enhance the stress resistance of crops, such as cold resistance, drought resistance, salt resistance, lodging resistance, disease resistance, etc., enhance the ability of crops to withstand harsh external environments, and can significantly improve the stable and high yield performance of crops.

The only potash mine discovered in the country is in the northwest region. My father, a chemical expert, was transferred there, most likely to study potash fertilizer.

"What do you mean, the project is not progressing smoothly?" Zhou Yang asked again.

"It was not going well. The task we received was to improve the production process of potash fertilizer, but when we came to the potash mine in the Qarhan area, we found that the task was far more difficult than we imagined!"

Then my father said again: "Although the reserves of potassium salt mines there are not small and meet the standards of large-scale salt mines, the potassium salt content in the brine is not high, and the mining difficulty is much higher than that of solid salt mines abroad. This gives

The development and utilization of salt mines has caused considerable difficulties!”

"The most important thing is that our technology is too backward and the basic conditions are too poor, which greatly limits the production of potassium fertilizer. We have been studying for more than half a year, but we have not achieved decent results!"

After hearing his father's words, Zhou Yang also fell into silence.

The current situation of domestic potash fertilizer production is indeed not very optimistic, with low output, low purity, and poor effectiveness.

Coupled with the surge in my country's population, more and more food is needed, which leads to an increasing demand for potassium fertilizer.

At present, domestically produced potassium fertilizer is no longer able to meet the needs of domestic food production, and we have no choice but to import large amounts of potassium fertilizer from abroad every year.

It can be said that the serious shortage of potash fertilizer has become a major obstacle to the current economic development.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yang immediately said: "Dad, I think the current predicament is mainly due to lack of resources and backward technology. The Ministry of Chemical Industry wants to make a breakthrough in technology and improve the utilization rate of potassium salt mines, but I

I think we can think of another solution based on the resources of potash mines!"

Zhou Yawen sighed and said: "I don't know what you are talking about, but it is not easy to find new potash mines. We are recognized as a potash-poor country!"

Oil poverty and potassium deficiency have always been a long-standing problem for us. Even at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, some foreign experts asserted that our country is a potassium-poor country with no potassium resources at all.

Although as early as the "First Five-Year Plan" period, our country began to search for potassium mineralization and predict the work, and finally discovered the existence of potassium salt mines in the Qarhan area of ​​​​Qaidam Basin, which also officially opened the curtain of potash salt mining in my country. .

However, so far, the number of potassium salt mines found is still very rare, and they are mainly concentrated in the Qaidam Basin. No potash salt mines have yet been found in other areas.

Just when Zhou Yawen sighed, he heard Zhou Yang suddenly say: "Who said that we are a potassium-poor country and we must have potassium salt mines in the country?"

Hearing his son's words, Zhou Yawen was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said: "If there really was one, the comrades in the prospecting team would have found it long ago. Why are they being controlled by others like now?"

"That's because they didn't look in the right place!"

Then Zhou Yang said again: "Our country is not rich in potassium resources, but I do not agree with the term "potassium-poor"."

"Haha, this has been a commonly accepted statement for many years. It's useless if you don't agree, unless you can find a very large potash mine!" Zhou Yawen said with a smile.

"If you ask me to look for it, I will definitely find it!" Zhou Yang said confidently.

Seeing that his son was so sure, Zhou Yawen couldn't help but become serious, and immediately asked: "Can you really find it?"

"Can be found!"

"Where?"

"Lop Nur!"

"Lop Nur, Lop Nur in Western Xinjiang?"

"Yes, Lop Nur was the water accumulation center of the Tarim Basin in ancient times, and rivers formed by melting snow from the nearby Kunlun Mountains and Tianshan Mountains would all converge into the low-lying terrain of Lop Nur to form lakes. These flowing water contain potassium ions, which are deposited to form

Potash mine."

Then Zhou Yang continued: "According to geological theory, Lop Nur has the conditions to form a potassium salt mine, so if you look for it somewhere, you will definitely find it!"

Zhou Yang's tone was firm. After all, there is a potassium salt mine in Lop Nur, which would be public to future generations.

Coupled with the publicity and rendering of the movie "Life and Death in Lop Nur", even people who have not studied geology know about it.

However, the country's attention is still on the Qaidam Basin. It was not until the 1980s that it began to pay attention to Lop Nur. Finally, during the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, potassium nitrate salt deposits were discovered in the Tuha Basin in the north of Lop Nur.

After hearing what his son said, Zhou Yawen was stunned for a moment, but still shook his head.

"You are just guessing, and there is no basis for it. What's more, Lop Nur has dried up long ago. Looking for potassium salt mines from that dead place is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack!"

Although Zhou Yawen also felt that what his son said made sense, he still felt that it was completely impossible to find potassium salt mines in Lop Nur.ωωw..net

What's more, it's thousands of miles away from people, so even if you find it, there's no way to mine it.

Rather than wasting time on this matter, it is better to focus your time and energy on technological breakthroughs.

Zhou Yang did not explain. After all, his father was not a geological expert, so it was useless to talk to him.

But he had made up his mind to take this matter seriously and help the country find potash mines.

Not only to prove myself to my father, but more importantly, the potash mine is really crucial to us.

However, as my father said, it is really difficult to find potash salt mines in Lop Nur. This can be seen from the movie "Life and Death in Lop Nur".

Therefore, how to do this specifically needs to be carefully planned.

For a moment, Zhou Yang fell into deep thought!
Chapter completed!