<h4>Chapter 1512: ck Alkane</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>_Min_ <strong>Editor: </strong>Rainystars


    Himalia, in the outpostb.


    Researchers, in chemical protective clothing, were in the istion room and carefully studied the samples in the culture tank.


    When they were analyzing the soil samples collected from Himalia, they found a special kind of bacteria in a type of ck porous soil. This kind of bacteria was anaerobic and could only survive in a nitrogen environment. But what made it interesting was not the bacteria itself, but the metabolites produced by this kind of bacteria...


    It was a ck lump, its chemicalposition was veryplex,posed of a variety of hydrocarbons. The molecules fold into each other and appeared to be an inteced zigzag spatial structure. Because of this closebination, as far as hydrocarbons were concerned, its density was remarkable, almost twice that of the same volume of water.


    “Incredible.”


    “This density is almost the same as Teflon.”


    “Mhmm, the density is 2. This is the first time I have seen such a high-density hydrocarbon.”


    Teflon was also polytetrafluoroethylene, with a density of 2.2, which was the densest ofmonly used stic materials. Based on the standard for hydrocarbons, if something could reach a density twice that of water, it was no exaggeration to describe it as incredible.


    “Did the analysise out?”


    “Just finished.”


    The researcher responsible for the research of this bacteria code-named MW1 was Wang Zhouping, a former academician of the Hua Academy of Sciences, and a researcher at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy.


    Because of his dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy of his superiors, as well as reasons such as his family and children’s education, he finally decided toe to Xin as a skilled immigrant. After he immigrated to Xin, he quickly passed the interview and received an offer from Celestial Trade. After six months of astronaut training, he became an honorable researcher on an outerary survey ship.


    When Wang Zhouping saw the analysis report of the MW1 bacteria, his eyes shed with excitement.


    Before he came to Xin, his research was focused on new energy storage. Precisely because of this, he knew better than anyone else what the existence of this material meant. If natural gas could be stored in solid form, not only would the cost of transportation and storage be significantly reduced, most importantly, the application of natural gas could be further expanded!


    Because the mainponents of this material were simr to alkanepounds, and the color was ck, the researchers unanimously decided to call it “ck alkane”.


    “Using methane and ethane as reactants, the metabolite ck alkane is generated through a biochemical reaction, and the reaction exotherms the heat needed to sustain life activities of the bacteria. The ck alkane itself has a strong thermal instion effect and fills the rock mass that the loose and porous bacteria is attached to. No wonder this kind of bacteria can survive in an environment with an average temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius!”


    “Have you seen this chemical form before?” The head of theboratory, Hou Jun, asked.


    “Never, but theoretically it is possible,” Wang Zhouping replied.


    Hou Jun nodded, looked at the researcher in the istion room, and said.


    “Test the heat ofbustion.”


    “Okay.”


    The thumb-sized lumps of ck alkane, or the metabolite of the MW1 bacteria, were put into a sealed container by the researcher in chemical protective clothing. Under Hou Jun’s instructions, the researchers in the istion room conducted a total of three sets of experiments to determine the reaction of ck alkane at different temperatures under three conditions: in an oxygen-free, or anaerobic environment, in a normal environment, and in an oxygen-rich, or aerobic environment.


    The results of the experiment were stunning.


    It not only shocked the researchers present, but even the people who watched the experiment hundreds of millions of kilometers away could not help but utter voices of amazement.


    “In an aerobic environment, it can be directly used as fuel. The ck alkane’s rate of dposition at 150 degrees Celsius and in an anaerobic environment reaches critical value like methane, and will quickly dpose into a mixture of methane and ethane... Try using the light!” Wang Zhoping suddenly thought of something, as he grabbed the microphone eagerly and exined, “In an anaerobic environment!”


    The researcher in the istion room turned his head and nced at Hou Jun through the ss. After thetter nodded, he turned around and ced another piece of ck alkane into the tank, then emptied the oxygen and filled it with inert gas, and started to irradiate the container.


    An incredible scene appeared.


    Based on the parameters that jumped on the instrument, the airposition inside the tank slowly changed. ck ethane slowly dposed under the light to generate methane and ethane. When Hou Jun saw this, there was a trace of excitement and realization in his pupils.


    Everything made sense now.


    It exined why this kind of bacteria that could not go through photosynthesis was able to thrive on the cold Himalia. This kind of bacteria “absorbed” methane and ethane gas, then generated ck alkane metabolites, and the exothermic reaction maintained energy consumption. The light from the Sun and Jupiter then broke the ck alkane into methane and ethane.


    Using ck alkane as a medium, the MW1 bacteria formed a closed energy cycle on this dead moon.


    ...


    A silver jetnded on the runway of Celestial City hundreds of millions of kilometers away. As the dome slowly closed, the hatch to the ne opened, and Jiang Chen, under the escort of a group of soldiers, took the train to the headquarters of the Space Department.


    At the Space Command Center, Jiang Chen met Kelvin.


    As soon as they met, Kelvin said to him in excitement.


    “ck alkane! We have discovered a new kind of energy!”


    “ck alkane?”


    “It’s this!” Kelvin tapped twice on the holographic screen, and a slowly spinning, ck solid holographic image appeared in front of the two, “Metabolite of MW1 bacteria.”


    “In other words, this thing is the feces of the MW1 bacteria?”


    “That is certainly one way to interpret it,” Kelvinughed awkwardly, cleared his throat, then continued, “Currently, the Himalia outpost is testing its physical properties. Judging from the data just returned, this kind of ck alkane can be dposed naturally under sunlight and can also be ignited directly in an oxygen environment. It can be both used as a storage method of natural gas or directly used as fossil fuel. Itsbustion efficiency is very high, and it hardly produces harmful gases.”


    After Jiang Chen listened to Kelvin’s description, he immediately realized the value of this material.


    It was not difficult to mine Himalia’s gas resources. Unlike the natural gas fields, oil fields, and some coal fields on Earth that contained a lot of impurities and required refining, the liquid methane and ethane mixture flowing on Himalia’s surface was extremely pure. It was no exaggeration to say that if someone threw a tank into theke with its valve open, after they pick up the tank, the tank would be filled with high-quality liquified natural gas.


    The only costs were storage and transportation.


    The process of storing liquefied gas in cryogenic gas storage tanks and transporting it to the Mars colony, the Moon colony, or even Earth hundreds of millions of kilometers away by Seagull-ss transport ships seemed feasible. The idea didn’t sound too difficult and could be achieved from a technical perspective, but the cost associated was not negligible.


    The new topic for Celestial Trade Energy Research Institute was to store more liquefied nature gas per unit volume in cryogenic tanks. The best scenario was to develop a hydrocarbon that could exist as a solid form at room temperature to rece liquefied methane and ethane for transportation.


    And the discovery of ck alkane undoubtedly solved this problem!