Beijing, Petrochemical Design Institute.

"Xiao Feng, let me introduce to you, this is Dean Kang of the Design Institute, the first generation of experts in our country to engage in ethylene plants, and an academic authority. It can be said that there is one person who is engaged in ethylene plant research in China, and they are all students of Dean Kang, or even students. Dean Kang, this is Comrade Feng Xiaochen, assistant to the general manager of our equipment industry company, he is a student of Professor Shen Rongru of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and an economist. ”

In an office at the design institute, Wu Shican enthusiastically introduced Feng Xiaochen to a scholar in his 50s. The scholar's name is Kang Haidong, the vice president of the Petrochemical Design Institute, and a veteran ethylene expert. Wu Shican has known Kang Haidong many years ago, but he has been dealing with him more frequently than recently. Wu Shican has great respect for Kang Haidong's academic status, but Wu Shican has some slander for his cooperative attitude.

Two years ago, the state launched the project of localization of 600,000 tons of ethylene plant, proposing to build a 600,000-ton ethylene plant mainly by its own strength, forming a large-scale ethylene construction capacity, and then promoting more ethylene construction projects on this basis. According to the model that has been formed before, the state finance directly allocates funds to the equipment industry company, and entrusts the equipment industry company as the general contractor of the project, which is responsible for the final result. The equipment industry company will split the project into several sub-projects and find subcontractors in China to commission construction.

Wu Shican originally came from a chemical background, and after hearing about this work, he took the initiative to ask Ying to be responsible for organizing the design of the ethylene plant. Saying that he is responsible does not mean that he led a group of technicians to draw and calculate in person, but that he contacted domestic design institutions to complete the design of the device.

The institution with the strongest ethylene plant design capability in China is this Beijing Petrochemical Design Institute. They designed China's first ethylene plant in the 60s, and although it was only a small plant with an annual output of 5,000 tons, the technology accumulation formed was very considerable. In the 70s, in line with the development trend of large-scale ethylene plants in the world, the State Planning Commission took the lead in organizing the technical research of ethylene plants with an annual output of 110,000 tons, and the task of device design was also undertaken by the Petrochemical Design Institute.

That technical breakthrough did not achieve the expected results. China's technological accumulation in chemical equipment mainly comes from 156 key projects aided by the Soviet Union in the 50s, and after 20 years, these technologies have become obsolete. Because of historical reasons, the technical exchanges between domestic scientific research institutions and foreign countries are seriously insufficient, and the work of technicians is almost behind closed doors, and it is not surprising that they finally returned home.

In the past 10 years or so, the state has implemented the policy of reform and opening up, on the one hand, it has imported a large number of advanced technologies from abroad, and on the other hand, it has sent personnel to foreign countries to study and learn from experience. For the design task of large-scale ethylene plant entrusted by the equipment industry company, the petrochemical design institute still has enough confidence to undertake it.

Wu Shican has been engaged in scientific research management for many years, and has an understanding of the technical level of various domestic institutions, and he chose the Petrochemical Design Institute to be responsible for the design of ethylene plants, which is also the ability of the Petrochemical Design Institute. When he first contacted Kang Haidong, Kang Haidong threatened to complete the theoretical design in half a year and take out the design drawings in a year with a confident attitude, which made Wu Shican greatly sigh at the courage of this old friend.

According to the contract signed by the two parties, the equipment industry company paid the first phase of the design fee of 10 million yuan to the design institute, and the design institute immediately organized a research team and started the design work.

The first step in the design is a theoretical study, which is mainly to determine the technological flow of ethylene production. Wu Shican was invited to participate in several seminars, and at first, he was frightened by the various concepts, theories, etc. in the mouths of the participants, and he was ashamed that his knowledge could not keep up with the development of the times, and he was full of hope for this design work. But after that, he felt that something was wrong. Theoretical seminars have been held several times, and everyone is still stuck in the concept discussion, and the topics discussed are becoming more and more biased, sometimes for an hour or two of an unimportant process, while the overall design idea has not been determined, which is not a good phenomenon.

In response to this situation, Wu Shican reminded Kang Haidong more than once: "Dean Kang, our theoretical research is almost done, isn't it time to start the overall design?"

"Lao Wu, don't worry, the overall design should also be theoretically advanced, if the theoretical research has not been completed, the overall design cannot be done. You're also an old chemical company, you should understand this truth. Kang Haidong said perfunctorily like this every time.

Of course, Wu Shican knows that the theory must be put first, and the theory can be determined before the overall design can be started. However, after such a long period of theoretical research, there has not been a result, can Wu Shican not be in a hurry? The time given by the state for the entire project is 10 years, which sounds like a long time, but there are still many things to do. After the theoretical design is completed, it is the overall design, and then the drawings and process requirements must be issued. These process requirements will face a variety of practical difficulties when manufacturing enterprises are met, and it will take time to solve these difficulties. When all the equipment is manufactured, it will be installed, tested, and trial-produced, and so on, and ten years is really not rich at all.

According to the plan discussed by Wu Shican and Feng Xiaochen in advance, the first set of domestic 600,000 tons of ethylene equipment does not need to do too much innovation in theory, and it is enough to use some mature foreign process solutions. In fact, the pressure is also very great to digest these existing process plans within half a year, so the equipment company spares no expense, hoping that the petrochemical design institute can invest more manpower and material resources to promote this project.

Wu Shican had already expressed this intention when he first contacted Kang Haidong, and according to the existing research strength of the Petrochemical Design Institute, he roughly estimated the progress, and then put forward the goal of completing the theoretical design in half a year and coming up with drawings in one year. But who would have thought that half a year had already passed, and these experts in the petrochemical institute were still arguing about some theoretical details, and they were still far from reaching a consensus, which made Wu Shican acceptable.

In desperation, Wu Shican had no choice but to timidly hint to Kang Haidong, pointing out that if the petrochemical institute could not complete the design as scheduled, the equipment company would have to take the contract to talk about things, and it would be possible to ask the petrochemical institute to pay compensation for breach of contract. Kang Haidong didn't take Wu Shican's slightly threatening hint to heart at all, he hummed and emphasized all kinds of difficulties to Wu Shican, and the subtext was a sentence: If you have the ability, you will be punished.

Wu Shican really didn't dare to fine the money of the petrochemical institute. If the petrochemical institute is an enterprise, according to what Feng Xiaochen has done in the past, the equipment company will definitely take the contract to claim compensation. But the problem is that the petrochemical institute is a public institution and has no profit itself, and all the funds come from state funding. If the equipment company wants to claim compensation from the petrochemical institute, the petrochemical institute will either let the state finance pay the money, or cut off the salaries of thousands of people in the hospital to lose money, the former will definitely not be able to do it, and the latter will not dare to accept even if Kang Haidong dares to do it, Wu Shican will not dare to accept it, which will cause a big mess.

In this way, things dragged on and on, and it dragged on for more than a year. Wu Shican couldn't bear it anymore, so he had to ask Luo Xiangfei for help, and Luo Xiangfei had only one solution, that is, to send Feng Xiaochen to solve it. It just so happened that Feng Xiaochen got some of the core ethylene technology transferred by the other party from Ikegu Manufacturing, and he also needed to discuss the problem of digesting and absorbing this part of the technology with the experts of the design institute.

"Dean Kang, Director Wu and I are here this time to implement the design progress of the ethylene plant. According to the contract signed by both of us, the petrochemical design institute should have completed all the designs six months before the deadline and could hand over the drawings and process requirements to us. But so far, we have not received these materials, and we don't know where the problem is. ”

After the greetings between the guest and the host, Feng Xiaochen sat down on the sofa and directly threw out his intentions.

"Assistant Feng, we're really embarrassed to talk about this. ”

Kang Haidong sat in the large swivel chair behind his desk and replied slowly. He said that he was embarrassed, but there was no regret on his face, in his opinion, the country gave them the task, and when they completed it, it was not Feng Xiaochen's turn to talk about it. He has seen a lot of the world, how can he put any equipment industrial company in his eyes.

"We underestimated the difficulty of the task, and of course, there were some communication problems on both sides. When Director Wu first contacted us, he did not specify what kind of technical requirements the project would meet. From the perspective of our design institute, we design a large-scale ethylene plant with the spirit of being responsible for history, so we must strive for excellence in every detail. In this way, in terms of progress, of course, it will inevitably be affected somewhat. Kang Haidong said to Feng Xiaochen with a chewing word.

"I don't know much about being responsible for history, can Dean Kang explain?" Feng Xiaochen said in a low-key manner.

Kang Haidong said: "To be responsible for history, simply put, it means that the devices we design should have our uniqueness, not imitate foreign mature technology everywhere, and reflect the contribution of our country's engineers and technicians to mankind." If we just take the foreign technology and copy it, then what do we need researchers to do, why not find a few draftsmen?"

Feng Xiaochen nodded and said, "Dean Kang is right, we must have our own innovations. However, I'd like to know how long it will take us to complete such an innovation."