Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 792: Refineries start operation (2/2)

Kirtan, who saw the carriage of his father moving farther and farther away, finally turned his attention to the chief engineer who had just arrived.

The chief engineer was none other than the middle-aged man who was present when Vijay had come to visit.

"Listen carefully, everyone," he started, his expression serious. "All of your tasks are very simple. There is no technical content in the work you do, but it is extremely important because you are dealing with volatile materials. One of the byproducts of this refining is more volatile than the gunpowder used in ammunition, so you understand how dangerous this job can be if something goes wrong."

The engineers already knew this since they had already taken the practical classes yesterday, but still, a few gulps were audible.

"Starting off, we are standing directly under Settling Tank 1, and the one next to us is Settling Tank Number 2. Each of the tanks is 50,000 litres in volume."

"As the name suggests, settling tanks serve the purpose of settling down the crude oil so that thicker and more impurity-prone contents will sink to the bottom, and more pure oil, along with important and useful resources, floats to the surface."

"With the continuous transportation of crude oil, Tanks 1 and 2 have been filled and have been allowed to settle for 24 hours. Now, I will instruct you all and walk you through the refinery process practically. Carefully observe and follow along."

The group of engineers and the chief engineer, numbering eight people, slowly walked to another pillar a few hundred feet away.

They climbed up the stair platform to the furnace.

The chief engineer immediately ordered for the valve to be opened between the pipe connecting the settling tank and the first distillation still.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

"Brrrr"

Kirtan found the sound hard to describe. He could feel the vibrations from within the first distillation still as the oil hit its chambers at high speed, even without touching anything.

The chief engineer pointed at the settling tank 100 feet away. "As you can see, the pipe connected to the settling tank is over 4 feet up from the bottom, so only 70% of the crude oil gets transferred through."

Once the transfer of the oil was completed, the chief engineer immediately started to dump the bags of coal stacked up on top of the platform.

Kirtan had quick hands and quick thinking. He immediately joined the chief engineer and helped him out.

The chief engineer nodded in satisfaction and shouted out, "Enough!! Each coal bag is different and contains coal with different calorific values. Even though they have similar weights, Their effect as fuel is not absolute. In general, eight to ten bags of coal should be plenty." Saying that he quickly put some oil on top of the coal pile and lit it on fire while he immediately closed the chamber.

''DUM!!"

A few minutes passed, and a heatwave began to radiate from within the furnace.

'Tick' 'Tick' 'Tick'

The chief engineer knocked on a metal container stuck to the wall, which seemed to have a glass tube on its end.

"This is an industrial-grade Pillai Reddy thermometer. The end of this thermometer goes directly inside the furnace. It is very important that the temperature is measured so that the heat does not go past 200 degrees Tāpans. The recommended temperature is between 100 and 200 degrees Tāpans."

"In case a dumbass among you makes the mistake of adding too much fuel and the temperature rises above 200 degrees Tāpans, pull this lever."

The chief engineer pulled the lever, and immediately a 'Swoosh' sound was heard, after which, almost magically, the temperature in the thermometer began to fall.

Prithvi was curious about how this happened, but fortunately, the chief engineer started to explain.

"Notice how the container within the furnace is conical. There is a reason for that. The tip of the conical surface has a mechanism that can be opened with this lever. So when the lever is pulled, a hole 8 inches wide opens up, thereby evacuating all the coal to the bottom of the pillar, where it will be extinguished by the people below."

"The mistake is not too expensive, but it is very time-consuming to correct as it could set off the whole schedule of refining cycles, so it is best not to overfill the coal within the furnace. It is all right if it is underfilled because see here,"

'Krr!'

The chief engineer pulled down a small metal hatch on the side of the furnace.

"Coal can be added from this as well, but this can only fit one shovel at a time."

"Oh, one more thing. Before the temperature is allowed to reach the maximum of 200 degrees Tāpans, it should remain between 30 degrees Tāpans and 150 degrees Tāpans, ideally at 100 degrees for at least 30 minutes. As for why, I'll explain to you in the next stage."

After explaining everything, the chief engineer once again filled up the furnace with only five bags of coal instead of ten and lit the furnace.

"Here, take a look. It's at 100 degrees Tāpans exactly. This should be the temperature where the furnace should be maintained for at least half an hour, but since this is a demonstration, I will speed it up," he said as he shovelled in coal through the hatch until the temperature began to rise.

"Once the ideal temperature reaches 180 degrees Tāpans, the furnace is at an optimum working mode. There is no need to push for the maximum temperature of 200 degrees Tāpans."

"After 30 more minutes, you can pull this lever right here."

Pulling the blue lever, all the engineers watched with amazement as a thick, sticky liquid, which seemed to be semi-solid, was dumped into the pit that had been dug below.

"That's the mixture of heavy oil and tar. The oil that can be squeezed out is heavy oil, and the semi-solid left behind is the tar."

"Both of these occupy around 20 to 30% of the crude oil input, meaning it is anywhere from 40 litres to 60 litres for 200 litres of crude oil."

"Let's move on. The heated oil should be sent to the condenser right about now."

However, before the chief engineer could move on, Prithvi immediately voiced a doubt. "Sir, I noticed that as soon as we arrived at the platform, right when the furnace was ignited, you turned on the yellow lever. Is it meant to specify something?"

The chief engineer looked at the man who asked the question with some appreciation. "Good observation. But in order to explain it, quickly follow along—this next step is very time-sensitive."

Saying that the chief engineer hurried over to the first condenser, which was a few meters away. The engineers ran behind him.

"As you can see, the condenser is connected to the water tank, and the freshwater keeps circulating to keep the water temperature from rising."

"Naphtha is a byproduct derived from heating up the crude oil, and it is very volatile. It becomes fumes at 30 to 200 degrees, so the engineers stationed at the first distillery and here, which is the first condenser unit, need to be in sync."

"Didn't you ask why the yellow lever has to be kept open as soon as the furnace is turned on?" He looked at Pruthvi. "This is the exact reason. Naphtha is the first byproduct we get from the first distillation. It forms as soon as the temperature hits 35 to 200 degrees in the furnace. Fumes get sent here, and with the existence of water, these fumes liquefy and are sent to the isolated naphtha container room right over there. Remember, the water temperature should be maintained at 30 to 50 degrees Tāpans at all times—this is the temperature at which naphtha fumes condense into liquid."

"Also remember, the major byproduct we're looking for, kerosene, also becomes fumes at a higher temperature, around 150 to 275 degrees, so the temperature overlaps a little. There is a chance that kerosene will get contaminated with naphtha, making it more volatile, which we do not wish to see. Hence, once the furnace crosses 150 degrees, the output valve that sends liquids to the naphtha storage facility will be closed, and the condenser will do its work and send all the liquefied gases to the next distillation still."

Kirtan, as well as the other engineers, nodded in understanding. They immediately realized that this was the trickiest and most dangerous part of the process because this is where naphtha, the most volatile byproduct, is generated and liquefied.

Soon, the chief engineer took them to the rest of the two facilities as well.

"This is the second distiller. It will work at temperatures between 150 degrees Tāpans and 300 degrees Tāpans. The fumes condensed here, which are finer than the fumes produced in the first distillation chamber, are the most purified form of kerosene fumes, which have been removed from naphtha as much as possible. These fumes will be sent to the second condenser, maintained at 25 to 30 degrees Tāpans, which is the temperature at which kerosene fumes liquefy and will then be liquefied into kerosene output. As for what remains in the second distillation still," *tap tap* "—it will be sent into the fuel oil storage facility down below."

Everyone remembered the large metal containers enclosed within the warehouse to the right side of the second distillation still and nodded.

The chief engineer suddenly reminded them, thinking that the temperatures could easily be confused, "Remember, don't get confused. Naphtha becomes vapour starting at 35 degrees Tāpans until 200 degrees Tāpans and liquefies at 30 to 50 degrees Tāpans. However, although kerosene becomes fumes at 150 to 300 degrees Tāpans, it liquefies at 25 to 30 degrees Tāpans. Kerosene is inherently harder to become vapour, but it shares the range at which it becomes both liquid and vapour at the extreme ends with naphtha."

"This is the whole process of Raya crude oil refining. The tasks and work needed to be done are not too hard, the skills required are not too challenging, but the work is important and dangerous."

"With that being said, we will run trial operations throughout the day. This will be the most important and the last test to see if your engineers fit the job."

"Even if you have passed the previous trials, the exams, as well as practical demonstrations in a simulated laboratory with a model, you will still fail if you fail this practical trial we are running today."

"You'll be demoted from core engineering staff responsible for operating and maintaining the refinery to ground staff directing the flow of logistics."

"So, gentlemen, good luck."

---

The carriage of Father Prithvi and son Jitendra had already gone a long way, but when they looked back and saw the smoke rising from the two chimneys like black dragons soaring to the sky, their faces couldn't help but become complicated.

"Father, the world is going to change a lot, isn't it?"

"It sure is, son."

'Sigh!!!'

"Forget it. As long as His Majesty is in power, he will look after everything." The old man let out a deep breath and turned his head, suppressing the deep uneasiness in his heart.

Prithvi was not alone in his thoughts. A lot of people in the Bharatiya Empire were feeling the same things. The empire was developing too quickly, not allowing the people to cope with it. A lot of people, especially the old, were leaving the cities and towns to settle in rural villages in order to feel comfortable in an environment they were more familiar with.

However, the only reason no major problems had occurred was due to the trust of the majority of the population in the emperor, as well as there being more young people in the empire who were more adaptable to changes and whose minds were more flexible.

However, Vijay still had his doubts. He did not know how people would react when a steel monster would run on a metal track at speeds that only the best of horses could achieve.

He could still remember the cases in Europe where people got scared by the train, thinking it was a huge metal monster. He also remembers when the train was first introduced to China, the court officials immediately resisted it firmly due to it making the centralization of the emperor's power stronger. But in the end, he put all those thoughts to the back of his head, thinking that he would deal with those problems when they occurred.

P.S. I don't know who the nerdy details are for, but if you are one who enjoys them, awesome. Oh, I'll attach an image in the comments—check it out.