Himalia, in the outpost lab.
Researchers, in chemical protective clothing, were in the isolation 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 black 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 black lump, its chemical composition was very complex, composed of a variety of hydrocarbons. The molecules fold into each other and appeared to be an interlaced zigzag spatial structure. Because of this close combination, 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 of commonly used plastic 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 analysis come 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 to come 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 outer planetary survey ship.
When Wang Zhouping saw the analysis report of the MW1 bacteria, his eyes flashed 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 main components of this material were similar to alkane compounds, and the color was black, the researchers unanimously decided to call it “black alkane”.
“Using methane and ethane as reactants, the metabolite black alkane is generated through a biochemical reaction, and the reaction exotherms the heat needed to sustain life activities of the bacteria. The black alkane itself has a strong thermal insulation 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 formula before?” The head of the laboratory, Hou Jun, asked.
“Never, but theoretically it is possible,” Wang Zhouping replied.
Hou Jun nodded, looked at the researcher in the isolation room, and said.
“Test the heat of combustion.”
“Okay.”
The thumb-sized lumps of black 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 isolation room conducted a total of three sets of experiments to determine the reaction of black 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 black alkane’s rate of decomposition at 150 degrees Celsius and in an anaerobic environment reaches critical value like methane, and will quickly decompose into a mixture of methane and ethane… Try using the light!” Wang Zhoping suddenly thought of something, as he grabbed the microphone eagerly and explained, “In an anaerobic environment!”
The researcher in the isolation room turned his head and glanced at Hou Jun through the glass. After the latter nodded, he turned around and placed another piece of black 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 air composition inside the tank slowly changed. Black ethane slowly decomposed 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 explained 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 black alkane metabolites, and the exothermic reaction maintained energy consumption. The light from the Sun and Jupiter then broke the black alkane into methane and ethane.
Using black alkane as a medium, the MW1 bacteria formed a closed energy cycle on this dead moon.
…
A silver jet landed on the runway of Celestial City hundreds of millions of kilometers away. As the dome slowly closed, the hatch to the plane 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.
“Black alkane! We have discovered a new kind of energy!”
“Black alkane?”
“It’s this!” Kelvin tapped twice on the holographic screen, and a slowly spinning, black 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,” Kelvin laughed awkwardly, cleared his throat, then continued, “Currently, the Himalia outpost is testing its physical properties. Judging from the data just returned, this kind of black alkane can be decomposed 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. Its combustion 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 the lake 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-class 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 replace liquefied methane and ethane for transportation.
And the discovery of black alkane undoubtedly solved this problem!
