Text | China Science News trainee reporter Ye Manshan
On a quiet afternoon in early summer, in an office at the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development of PetroChina, a gray-haired old man was intently writing a diary. This old man is Dai Jinxing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor-level senior engineer of the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development of PetroChina.
Since 1998, Dai Jinxing has developed the habit of writing a diary every day, except for the occasional failure to record in time due to going out to participate in academic activities. At the age of nearly 90, he has accumulated 55 diaries, which have completely recorded his scientific research in the past 20 years. The content of the diary can be condensed into 8 words - diligent work, diligent reading, diligent thinking, and diligent creation. These eight words run through his academic career, and they are also the creed that he has always adhered to in scientific exploration.
It is this perseverance and diligence that enabled him to create the geological theory of coal-to-gas, which brought breakthroughs to the field of natural gas exploration and development in the mainland, promoted the rapid development of the mainland's natural gas industry, and gradually made the mainland from a gas-poor country to a major gas-producing country.
Dai Venus
"Diligence" is the foundation
In Dai Jinxing's scientific research career, "diligence" is a solid cornerstone. On the road to research and exploration of natural gas, the first task is to understand the characteristics, genesis and accumulation of various gases. However, in the sixties and seventies of the last century, the relevant literature was quite scarce, which brought great challenges to the research work.
Faced with this dilemma, Dai Jinxing, together with colleagues and students, began to systematically collect gas samples across the country in a systematic manner since 1975.
"In 1984, we sampled in the icy water of the snow-capped mountains of the Nu River, and the water temperature was so low that it could quickly cause numbness in the feet. In order to take better samples, we had to take turns with our colleagues to go ashore for warmth. Dai Jinxing remembers the hardships of the sampling process vividly.
What he remembers most is sampling in the 80°C~83°C hot spring pool of Xinglong Farm in Hainan. "Because the water temperature of the hot spring pool is high, and there are only more than 10 intermittent bubble points, I can only invert the mouth of the glass bottle to drain and take the air, and hold the glass bottle like hide and seek to move with the bubbles, and it took 2 hours to get 200 ml of gas sample, and everyone was steamed, sweating, and cheeks were crimson."
In this way, Dai Jinxing, his colleagues and students traveled all over the country, collected more than 2,600 samples of oil and gas field gas, gas gas, biogas, volcanic gas and mantle source gas, and accumulated more than 80,000 gas components and carbon, hydrogen and helium isotope data so far. This provides valuable first-hand information for the mainland to explore the genesis and enrichment of natural gas, and lays a foundation for the study of natural gas geochemistry.
"Diligent reading" is enlightenment
For Dai Jinxing, "diligent reading" not only enriches people, but also enables people to have an in-depth understanding of the research results of their predecessors, so as to accurately select the proposition and direction of the main attack. Dai Jinxing's diligent reading habit began about 70 years ago and continues to this day. He was very modest and often laughed at himself for not being gifted.
"When I was in the fifth grade of primary school, I had just transferred from the countryside to Wenzhou Washi Primary School, and due to the difference in education level, I repeated the grade for one year, and was ridiculed as an 'idiot' by my classmates." But the shame was both pressure and motivation, Dai recalled. From the beginning of the second semester, he listened attentively to the lectures, carefully studied the textbooks after class, reviewed what he had learned that day before going to bed at night, and consulted the books in time when he encountered problems that he did not understand until the problems were solved. Through diligent study, he finally came out on top in the second semester.
"This is where my geological dream began. I remember that in a geography work class, I made a map of the distribution of coal mines and iron mines in China made of gypsum board, which was praised by the teacher, and I felt excitement and pride. From that moment on, Dai Jinxing planted the seed of "looking for mines for the country" in his heart.
On the eve of his 80th birthday, he realized a self-exhortation saying: "Read one more word, add one more happy cell." In the more than 60 years of scientific research, he insisted on reading papers and monographs, and every week he would go to the journal room of the unit library to browse the catalogs of new books and major oil and gas magazines at home and abroad, so as to understand the latest research trends at home and abroad and learn new knowledge. At the same time, he also encouraged students to go to the journal room to read more books and obtain more cutting-edge research results.
"Diligent thinking" is the soul
"'Diligent thinking' is the soul of scientific research." Dai Jinxing said, "Only the diligent thinking of repeated refinement, careful docking, combination of time and space, and comprehensive scrutiny can produce scientific propositions and scientific laws." ”
At the beginning of 1972, Dai Jinxing was transferred back to Beijing to work at the newly established Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development of PetroChina, where he had good conditions to specialize in natural gas research.
"At that time, the oil industry was 'heavy oil and light gas', in order to reverse the situation of 'strong oil and weak gas' in exploration and research, I decided to systematically investigate domestic gas fields, systematically take gas source rock samples, systematically take gas samples, systematically grasp the natural gas geology of gas-producing countries, systematically familiarize myself with the accumulation conditions of foreign atmospheric fields, and systematically read the representative works of world-famous natural gas scholars." Dai Jinxing said.
Then, Dai Jinxing put forward the problem of hydrocarbon formation characteristics of coal measures and explored its rules. In order to answer this question, he went to the Zhongba gas field in the Sichuan Basin in 1975 to investigate and investigate the gas outburst in the Longtan Formation of the Hongwei Coal Mine in Hunan Province. At the same time, he read a large number of relevant literature, and after two years of detailed investigation, comparison and repeated thinking, he finally formed the scientific idea of coal measure hydrocarbons in 1977 with gas as the main and oil as the supplement.
In 1978, Dai completed the article "Natural Gas and Oil Formed in Coal Formation", which was published in Petroleum Exploration and Development the following year. The article has received high recognition from the scientific community, with many scientists and scholars giving positive reviews. Qian Weichang and Sun Honglie, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, edited the "Overview of the Academic Achievements of Famous Chinese Scientists in the 20th Century - Geoscience Volume", which clearly pointed out: "The article "Natural Gas and Oil Formed in Coal Formation" proposed by Dai Jinxing in 1979 is generally regarded as the beginning of China's natural gas geology. ”
The birth of the coal-to-gas theory not only broke the shackles of "monism" (oil-type gas), but also promoted the transformation of the theory of China's natural gas exploration from "monism" to "dualism" (coal-to-gas and oil-type gas), thereby accelerating the rapid development of China's natural gas industry.
In 1978, before the coal-to-gas theory was proposed, coal-to-gas reserves accounted for only 8.89% of the country's total proven natural gas reserves. After more than 40 years of development, by 2022, the proportion of proven geological reserves of coal-to-gas has jumped to about 55.3%. From 1978 to 2022, China's natural gas production increased by about 15 times, while coal gas production increased by 369 times, and coal gas production is the main part of China's natural gas production growth. In 2023, as the world's fourth largest gas producer, the mainland will produce more than 230 billion cubic meters of natural gas, increasing its annual output by more than 10 billion cubic meters for the seventh consecutive year, further consolidating its position as a major gas producer.
Dai Jinxing inspected the Badaowan Formation in the Tashdian section of the Yanqi Basin. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"Diligent creation" is the driving force
"Diligent innovation" is the driving force of scientific research, representing the courage to innovate and make breakthroughs. For scientists, diligence is mainly reflected in innovative papers and books. Dai Jinxing said frankly: "Due to the heavy tasks and many meetings, I often use the Spring Festival, National Day and other long holidays to conduct scientific research, and I have been working in the office almost every year on the second day of the Lunar New Year." ”
He adheres to the concept of "contributing time to life", and completes at least 3 main papers every year. He also encouraged his students to do the same, believing that they could become experts by persisting for 10 to 20 years. He often stresses to his students: "Good research should speak with evidence, and data is the most important thing." In daily work, it is necessary to pay attention to the collection and collation of data. ”
Liu Quanyou, a former student of Dai Jinxing and a Boya Distinguished Professor at Peking University's Institute of Energy Research, said: "Professor Dai is not only my mentor, but also a role model for me to continue to explore basic science issues. Although he is nearly 90 years old, Mr. Dai still insists on writing no less than two high-level papers every year. Mr. Dai has always encouraged me to continue to explore new fields, and every once in a while he would call me to ask about my latest knowledge and article publications, which touched me very much and inspired me to keep moving forward. ”
55 precious diaries record his thoughts and discoveries over the course of 26 years. These seemingly everyday and insignificant habits actually embody his persistent pursuit of scientific research and the spirit of unremitting efforts.
In the future, Dai Jinxing hopes to train more scientific researchers for the country, and hopes to teach by word and deed, guide more young people to devote themselves to scientific research, and cultivate their innovative spirit and scientific research ability.
Dai Jinxing often said to young friends: "The journey of success is paved by thousands of cornerstones of struggle, and people who hope for success must first be willing to be a cornerstone of struggle!" ”