Chapter 263: Chapter 259: Fractionating Petroleum
A group of people arrived at the dragon’s lair, and even though they were wearing breathing masks, everyone could feel an indescribable putrid stench lingering at the tip of their noses, making them almost gag.
It was already known beforehand that this giant dragon’s lifestyle was inseparable from the decay of corpses, with its body wrapped in dead bodies, so one could well imagine what the lair would be like.
The ground was covered with rotten, foul-smelling substances that could no longer be described as corpses, resembling sludge, with maggots crawling back and forth within.
This was formed by the decay, fermentation, and accumulation of corpses over many years.
Due to the dragon’s activities, this area was sunken, causing these rotten materials to pile up and unable to flow away.
Moreover, with the dragon’s daily hunting, it could be said that fresh carrion was added almost daily.
The power of this thing after years and years could be imagined.
Before Perfikot’s journey across worlds, there was a trend in the original world of bizarre eating shows, and pickled puffins from Norway were quite similar to these things in essence.
Both allowed creatures to rot to a liquefied state, and the scent emitted was at least ten times stronger than the more easily accepted surströmming, which was also popular.
At least Perfikot felt that the breathing mask she made was still somewhat lacking in blocking this foul odor.
Not only that, she also felt that she would definitely have to discard the clothes she wore today once she returned.
Even from such a distance, having not truly entered that area, Perfikot felt as if her clothes were already infused with the stench.
If she didn’t want to be running around smelling of corpse stench, she needed to burn these clothes early.
Additionally, she needed to take a good bath once she got back, to prevent any foul odor from clinging to her body.
If that happened, she would literally peel off her own skin; after all, there’s a related technique in human alchemy that allows her to peel off her skin and immediately grow a new layer.
It was because of her disgust for this foul odor that Perfikot did not continue approaching the dragon’s lair but stopped in front of the black sludgy area.
Numerous white bones had been piled up in this rotting sludge accumulated over the years into a nest resembling a bird’s nest, which appeared to be the dragon’s dwelling place.
"Count, you shouldn’t go any further; the area ahead is too filthy! You better stay here and let others go ahead to explore!" Samantha persuaded Perfikot, attempting to stop her from stepping into the dragon’s lair.
Faced with Samantha’s persuasion and obstruction, Perfikot nodded assuredly without any insistence this time and said to Samantha, "Have someone dig a trench first, drain these toxic sludge away, and find a place to burn it or use other methods to deal with it.
There are numerous bacteria and toxins lurking in this rotting sludge, so you must be careful when you come into contact, avoid direct contact with the skin as much as possible, and any clothes stained with this sludge also need to be burned together. Everyone must undergo sterilization and disinfection to prevent bacterial infection."
Since last year, Perfikot had begun to disseminate knowledge related to modern medicine, such as bacteria and viruses; the majority of people in the Northern Territory now understood that cleanliness and hygiene are effective ways to prevent diseases.
Therefore, facing Perfikot’s request, the exploration team leader and Samantha had no resistance or misunderstanding.
Even the ordinary exploration team members responsible for the work later deeply understood why Perfikot demanded such requirements.
Since the dragon’s lair couldn’t be entered, Perfikot naturally turned around and headed to the Petroleum Lake, gazing at the "sparkling" lake.
Although the lake isn’t large in area, even from Perfikot’s vantage point, she couldn’t see the end of it; taking into account the depth of the "water," it was imaginable just how much petroleum was stored in this lake.
Perfikot used alchemy at the lakeside to lift some crude oil, controlling it to float in front of her.
It was a droplet of black-brown crude oil, appearing not too viscous, with some granular impurities inside, but through the identification by the Eye of Omniscience, Perfikot was affirmative that this was a rather fine quality crude oil.
She tried lifting a lump of crude oil again, using alchemy to decompose it in her hands, wanting to test if she could extract desired refined oil and petrochemical products through alchemy.
Being a top-notch Alchemist, for Perfikot, decomposing a lump of substance was extremely simple.
However, the decomposition of crude oil couldn’t simply reduce it to a single substance because Perfikot wanted to obtain finished oil and various petrochemical products that weren’t simple substances.
Therefore, rather than decomposing during the separation, it’s more like partitioning.
The petroleum fractional distillation technology of the original world utilized the difference in boiling points among different substances in crude oil, thus evaporating and condensing to separate different fractions, thereby isolating different substances.
In the process, light oil gas, naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, and diesel, among other products, can be obtained.
Therefore, facing the bunch of crude oil before her, Perfikot did not directly initiate alchemy to decompose it but referred to the principle of fractional distillation, designing an alchemical ritual to separate the crude oil into various different products.
Moreover, she rubbed a heap of wide-mouth bottles on the ground using sand and gravel in situ to showcase and preserve these separated products.
Seeing Perfikot separate a lump of black crude oil into various different products, some clear, some dark yellow, some viscous, some as clear as water, made Samantha beside her reveal a very surprised expression.
However, the capability to perform baffling feats, as viewed by others, was already societal common knowledge about Alchemists in this world.
Therefore, facing what Perfikot did, what truly surprised her was the sheer sheer amount of things that could be extracted from that lump of crude oil.
"Count, what can these things be used for?" Samantha asked curiously.
Perfikot did not provide a detailed explanation, directly opened the bottle containing gasoline, and poured the clear-looking gasoline onto the ground. Then she borrowed some ignition tools from Samantha to light it.
Only then did she explain, "This is an excellent fuel; it can burn efficiently and continuously. Moreover, the process of combustion does not produce as much smoke and dust as coal burning does; it exists as a potential alternative to coal."
Upon hearing Perfikot say this and seeing the small burning pool of gasoline before her, Samantha understood why Perfikot had previously said that after developing the Petroleum Lake, the Northern Territory would no longer need to burn coal.