Novel Full Chapter 43 Oil Production
After successfully running away from the old men, Landon continued his assessment.
He soon realised that, he now had 9,700 adults who could work, out of the group of 14,125.
Adding to the other 100 volunteers who built the mud houses previously, he now had a total of 9,800 workers.
Landon didn't want to start building houses without a water & treatment plant, central heating plant and electricity.
After browsing through his mind, he realised that the pipes needed to be connected through the walls of the house and so on.
If he did it later, then he would have to break down the walls and floors, just to install these features. That was just double-work.
Landon had scheduled for home construction to be done 4 months later.
That would be in September.
.
.
He first started off with the 'Crude oil refining' process.
To Landon, this section was the most important piece to the puzzle as it was essential for most departments.
With oil, Landon could produce synthetic rubber, which could later be used to make tires, pipe insulation, rubber handle grips and other important tools.
Also, he needed to use oil, as fuel for the electrically powered work machines that he was going to create.
There was no way that the men could lift those gigantic heavy pipes that existed back on earth. They also had to put the pipes underground and move them from place to place.
Hence, he needed heavy construction machines like dragline excavators, Bulldozers and so on.
"System, can you locate the nearest underground crude oil reservoir?"
The system took a minute before answering him.
"Answering to host, there's one in the ocean, just 7.4 Km from the shores. And another one, 3 km away from the city wall."
Landon didn't like those answers.
He didn't have an oil drill ship, to go out into the sea. And his last option was out of the city itself. It was on the highway going to the next town.
After thinking for a while, his eyes lit up. Didn't the system say that it was almighty?
"System, I want you to re-direct the oil towards the lower region..... . right... here...." Landon said, while circling a certain area on his monitor.
"Not a problem host. Do you want it to be an oil seep or deep underground reservoir?"
For now, an oil seep would be the best option over underground oil reservoirs.
Back on earth, there were a lot of oil industries that benefited because of oil seeps.
In California USA, there are tiny lakes and ponds of pure crude oil floating on the earth's surface. These ponds, are the oil seeps.
One doesn't necessarily have to dig the ground with a drill, to get the oil. The oils move upwards on their own.
It's like all those cartoons that show when a man finds oil in the ground. The oil will squirt upwards, forcing itself out of the ground.
Of course when Landon finally made his own drill, he would for sure dig up the ground and sea oil.
For now, the workers would have to use iron buckets and drums, go scoop out the oil from the pond.
.
It's safe to say that the system charged him for his request. At the end he had used, 280 Technology points.
Since, the other departments couldn't started without oil, Landon had all 9,800 workers help build a manually operated processing unit within the alchemy industry.
He allocated 1 building for this process, and within 3 days, everything was built.
They built 3 gravity tanks, 5 fractional distillation vessel that had an oven like bottom, several storage tanks and a few mini heating systems..
Landon wanted to use gravity to his advantage here, so he built the gravity tanks at a higher elevation level than that of the fractional distillation columns.
Landon knew that when making oil products, it was necessary to drain the water in the oil first.
He had requested for 3 tanks to be made, so that when one is full and experiencing its wait time, the workers could fill the other 2, as much as they liked.
After 2 days, gravity had separated the water from the oil.
The water was drained at the bottom and the oil was sent to the distillation column.
Landon and chief Wiggins watched as the oil flowed downwards towards the inlet of the distillation colum.
"Your highness, are we in the distillation stage yet?" Chief Wiggins asked as he looked at Landon all blue-eyed and bushy tailed.
Ever since Landon showed him the way, (*as he claims), Wiggins had become a 5 year old kid whenever he saw Landon.
They would talk about math and Chemistry, and Landon would solve any bumps or issues that he had along the way.
Landon was sure that even on his wedding day, chief Wiggins would still ask him a ton of questions.
He was also sure that if he ever died, Chief Wiggins would probably slap his corpse wide awake.
The man was obsessed with Chemistry.
"The distillation process has just began. I'll explain it to you, as the process continues".
Wiggins nodded as he carefully followed Landon's explanation.
There were 5 fractional distillation columns. But the process only needed 3.
The other 2 were backup, just in case any of the working columns need to undergo a routine maintenance check or gets damaged.
A single column had 6 outlets and 1 inlet. These outlets were for the products: Petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, Diesel, lubricating oil, fuel oil and residue (tar).
Of course the crude oil was passed in through the inlet.
The fire heated the oil, and the various products were formed due to vapor rise at different temperatures.
At this point chief Wiggins was subconsciously holding Landon's wrist without him even knowing.
'Dude, it's just oil separation alright? Why the heck are you getting so excited? When I show you water purification in future, what are you going to do? get a heart attack?' Landon thought as he shook his head helplessly and continued to observe the process.
Some of the products were passed through mini heating systems, so as to remove any water, gases and unwanted carbons from them.
From there, these oil products were sent on their way to their storage tanks.
Since Landon didn't have a cooling system yet, he made the pipes connecting the products to the storage units, extremely long.
The pipes spiralled through what resembled a long aquarium filled with cold sea water.
He then added mercury to the sea water, ensuring that the hot vapor in the pipes would be cooled down and turned in to liquids, before reaching their storage tanks.
Mercury was one of the coldest liquids in the world. At normal atmosphere pressure, mercury's state is that of an ice block.
Chief Wiggins jumped around happily, as he observed the final stages of the process.
He had read of tar, diesel and the entire processing process from the book.....But actually seeing the process made him a firm believer.
Screw the ancestor gods that they had worshipped... could they make this happen? Could they make oil?
For him, Landon was God's sacred messenger, who was sent here to make them believe in the god of knowledge.....
If Landon knew what Chief Wiggins was thinking, he would definitely forbid him from spreading such believes.
He didn't want to be worshipped at all.
Although he had the system which was godly, Landon didn't truly believe that he was a messenger....
For sure, he believed that some powerful being, maybe God even, created the system to move around developing countless worlds.
It was just a job. Nothing more.
Plus how could he be a messenger, if he had never seen the person sending the message?
Impossible!!
.
.
Just like that, the week had finally come to an end.
Landon had successfully created the first batch of petroleum oil. As well as other oil-based products like fuel and tar.
--------Riverdale City---------
The wind howled against the trees and the sounds of crickets could be heard from afar.
"He accepted the job. Within 2 weeks, he should arrive." said a man with a cold tone.
"Excellent"