I can upgrade the shelter

The drill rig had stopped, and several workers were gathered around, pulling out the drill rods segment by segment.

Meanwhile, steam was billowing from the borehole beneath the drill rig, and a hot spring was continuously spraying water upwards, creating a misty atmosphere around the scene.

Chen Xin and Cao Daren arrived at the side of the drill rig, watching the wellhead below continuously gushing out scalding hot water. Chen Xin excitedly asked Cao Daren, "Have you measured the water temperature? What’s the temperature?"

"The water temperature is over seventy degrees, quite hot to the touch." Cao Daren was equally excited, answering Chen Xin while explaining the situation, "When the drill broke through four hundred meters, I had a feeling we’d hit water today, so I paid special attention. Sure enough, we hit the rock layer, and once we broke through, the water started gushing."

Hearing Cao Daren say the water temperature was over seventy degrees made Chen Xin very happy. A high water temperature means abundant thermal energy, which means more heat can be supplied. This is excellent news for the heat supply hub.

However, looking at the continuously gushing hot spring water, Chen Xin was also a bit worried and asked Cao Daren, "Will this water keep spraying continuously? If it keeps spraying, will it impact future construction?"

"Don’t worry about that, the water pressure isn’t high," Cao Daren reassured him quickly, "It’s spraying because we just broke the aquifer, and there’s a process for the pressure to release. Plus, the drill is still inside the casing, with limited space for the water to gush out. Once we pull the drill out, the water won’t spray like this, and we can block it with a cover."

By this time, researchers also learned about the hot spring discovery and hurried over. Watching the continuously gushing hot spring water, they excitedly asked Chen Xin, "Mr. Chen, I’ve seen your design drawings. The heat supply hub internal hot water should circulate, right? Is it necessary to drill an injection well?"

Of course, extracting geothermal resources can’t be done by just drilling a single water well. Although Xiang Province has abundant groundwater resources, it can’t be endlessly used.

Under normal circumstances, geothermal resource utilization involves circulation through two wells. One well extracts groundwater to obtain heat, and another well similarly drills into the underground aquifer, connecting with the extraction well underground. The extracted hot water releases its heat and is reinjected underground through the injection well for renewable use.

"An injection well must indeed be drilled, but its location and method require professional guidance, so this matter is not urgent for now." Chen Xin knew an injection well was necessary, but it wasn’t something to rush.

The injection well is not like the extraction well; it’s not just a matter of drilling into the aquifer and accessing water.

Since it’s needed to reinject extracted groundwater underground to form a cycle with the extraction well, the positions of both wells must be in the same aquifer. Determining this requires analyzing the aquifer’s trend, geology, and size, area, permeability, and other factors, not simply drilling a hole several hundred meters away.

This explains why Chen Xin said they need the help of geologists; such specialized analyses indeed require true professionals.

While discussing the drilling of the injection well with the researchers, Cao Daren was more concerned about construction issues.

Seeing the drill rods pulled up from underground, while the scalding hot water kept gushing without any sign of stopping, Cao Daren instructed the workers to continue construction and asked Chen Xin, "Mr. Chen, now that the well is done, what do you suggest we do next?"

"Next..." Chen Xin habitually raised his hand to touch his chin but ended up touching his face mask, so he reluctantly lowered it before saying, "Once the water stops spraying, have the workers clear the snow around the well and start erecting the framework. There’s no need to clear too much space, just dig around the rig to expose the ground, facilitating foundation work later."

"Are you preparing to build the heat supply hub?" The nearby researchers immediately understood what Chen Xin wanted next.

Chen Xin nodded affirmatively and answered, "Exactly, clear the snow and prepare the foundation for the heat supply hub, then erect the construction scaffolding. After that, it’s just a matter of assembling the prefabricated parts I’ve prepared."

Understanding Chen Xin’s plan, the researchers and Cao Daren didn’t raise objections, though Cao Daren had one concern: "Mr. Chen, once the heat supply hub is built, it’s for melting snow, right? Surely this place will accumulate a lot of water then, especially since there’s no injection well yet. The extraction well will need to keep drawing water, which brings up water discharge as a potential issue."

"Regarding water discharge, ’Daren’, you don’t have to worry. I’ll wait until the injection well is drilled and the entire system can operate cyclically before activating it. For now, we might only test the equipment, so direct discharge isn’t a concern." Chen Xin had considered this issue and didn’t intend to discharge water haphazardly.

However, the discharge of melted snowwater mentioned by Cao Daren is indeed worth noting. The site for drilling and constructing the heat supply hub is right at Lin City Railway Station’s forecourt. Due to the small railway station size, and the primary goal to clear railway station snow, when the heat supply hub receives power and melts the snow, water is likely to flow along the track trenches, potentially freezing the tracks.

This isn’t a minor issue — frozen tracks could cause serious derailments.

Follow current novels on Novᴇl_Fire(.)net

So water discharge must be considered.

"What about using pumps to extract and discharge to other places?" Cao Daren suggested a simple yet practical method: "Besides, in this snowy weather, directly discharging outside would cause it to freeze instantly without much impact."

Hearing Cao Daren’s suggestion, both Chen Xin and the researchers found it feasible, though something felt off.

Considering this, a researcher remarked, "Isn’t direct discharge inappropriate? As Mr. Chen said, the heat field generated by the hub covers a radius of two hundred meters, and calculating a snow thickness of more than ten meters, it’s akin to a small lake. Randomly discharging such a large volume of water might freeze creating an iceberg. Maybe we can find a way to utilize it."