Fuel

Fuel

Specific heat	20.86 Joule / mol

Superfuel

Specific heat	21.7 Joule / mol

Description

There are two types of fuel, solid fuel and gas mixtures.

Solid fuel

There are currently only solid fuel available in the game Coal, and Charcoal. Both can be used to fuel the Solid Fuel Generator. When burning coal and charcoal they produce the following gases.

Source	Pollutant	CO2
1 Coal	3 mol	10 mol
1 Charcoal	3 mol	3 mol

Gas Fuel

In order to use gases for fuel you need a combustible gas combined with an oxidizer. The only flammable gas in the game is Volatiles (labeled as H₂), the two oxygen sources are Oxygen (2:1 mix simply called fuel) and Nitrous Oxide (1:1 mix called superfuel or NOS).

When using liquid fuel some heat energy produced will be spent to evaporate liquid fuel components.

Volatiles	Oxidizer	Fuel	Combustion products
			Pollutants	Nitrogen	CO2
2 Volatiles	1 Oxygen		3 Pollutants		6 Carbon Dioxide
1 Volatile	1 Nitrous Oxide			2 Nitrogen	2 Carbon Dioxide

Using Fuels

Fuel Combustion

Autoignition Temperature: 300℃
2 Volatiles + 1 O₂ -> 3 Pollutant + 6 CO₂ + 572kJ

Superfuel Combustion

Autoignition Temperature: 50℃
1 Volatiles + 1 N₂O -> 2 N₂ + 2 CO₂ + 572kJ

Fuel Combustion Using a H2 Combustor

2 Volatiles + 1 O₂ -> 2 H₂O + 429kJ

Note that staying below autoignition temperature means condensation for Nitrous Oxide at more than about 1MPa pressure, making it hard to store the fuel mix in large quantities without liquid management. While this reaction releases the same amount of energy as the classic fuel combustion above, it does so using half the volatiles and heating waste gases with less thermal mass resulting in higher temperatures.

Collecting gases

Gases can be collected from a number for sources. On some planets Oxygen may be collected directly from the atmosphere. This can be accomplished with an active vent, some pipe and a gas tank storage. On other planets the oxygen will have to be filtered out from the other gases. A filtration unit and a filter will be needed for this. Some planets, however, have no atmosphere at all. In these cases the gases needed can be obtained by melting or crushing ices. This is by far the most common source for gases early in the game. A basic Ice Crusher setup will provide most of your gas collection and mixing needs.

Basic Ice Crusher Setup

Parts required

• 1 x Ice Crusher
• 5 x Pipes
• 1 x Volume Pump
• 1 x Pressure Regulator

Optional

• 1 x Active Vent

With this setup you can collect gases from ices to mix later. You can also pre-mix the gases by adding Volatile ice and Oxite at a 2:1 ratio. You can then load the pre-mixed fuel in canisters in pre-measured amounts using the pressure regulator.

Setup

Combination Ice Crusher, Gas collection, and Gas measuring station, Front View (Caution: Be sure to turn of the pressure regulator, and pump al the gas out of the crusher when mixing gases)

1. Place the ice crusher
2. Place a pipe facing to the right
3. Place a volume pump
4. Place a pipe tee facing left,right, and down.
5. Place a canister storage below the tee
6. Place a regulator to the right of the tee
7. Place a tee facing left,right, and down, Or an elbow facing left and down.
8. Place a second canister storage below the tee or elbow.
9. (Optional) Place an active vent to the right of the last canister storage.

Fuel mixing

1. Place Volatile Ice and Oxites in the ice crusher at a 2:1 ratio.
      * You can safely fit 8 Volatile to 4 Oxites in a canister. A Ratio of 10:5 will over fill a single canister
     ** Be sure to pump all the gases out of the crusher into a single canister, otherwise the mixture will fluxuate as the grinder processes and outs ices.
     *** Also be sure to turn off your regulator while you are collecting gases.
   
2. Pump the gases to your storage containers.
   
3. Set the regulator to the approximate pressure required to load the amount of fuel you need into the canister.
     * You can check the exact amount in the canister using the tablet and the gas analyzer

Refiling oxygen tanks

1. Purge the pipe network of any spurious gases from previous operations.
2. Crush Oxites in the the ice crusher
3. Pump the Oxites into a canister.
     *A canister can hold approximately 12 Oxites.
     *You will need to use a nitrogen filter in additon to your regular CO2 filter when breathing crushed Oxites.

Emptying Canisters

1. Place any canisters you want to empty into the far left canister storage
2. Set the active vent to "outward" and turn it on.

Collecting Atmospheric Gases

1. Place any canisters you want to fill in the far left slot.
2. Set the active vent to "Inwards" and turn it on.
     *Be aware that the canister will fill very quickly, be careful not to over-pressurize the canister.

Mixing Fuel

You can easily mix fuel by adding O₂ and H₂ to a pipe network in order to put it into canisters or pump into a furnace.

H₂ can be attained by melting the Ice (Volatiles) that can be found in some worlds while being part of the atmosphere of Vulcan. O₂ can be attained by melting the Ice (Oxite) or again from some atmospheres. N₂O is part of Ice (Nitrice) or can be created by the Nitrolyzer.

Depending on how exact the proportions of your gas mixture are you will end up with different end temperatures and pressures after ignition.

Basic Canister Mixing Setup

Parts required

• 2 x Portables Connector
• 2 x Portable Gas Tank
• 1 x Pipe Gas Mixer
• 1 x Gas Tank Storage
• n x Pipes
• n x Cables
• n x Gas Canister

Setup

1. Place both Portable Connectors
2. Connect both Portable Connectors to the the inputs of the Pipe Gas Mixer
3. Connect the Pipe Gas Mixer output to the Gas Tank Storage input
4. Connect the Pipe Gas Mixer power input to power source.

Use

1. Put first Portable Gas Tank or scrubber filled with O₂ on one Portables Connector.
2. Put second Portable Gas Tank or scrubber filled with H₂/volatile on the other Portables Connector.
3. Use a wrench to connect both Portable Gas Tanks to their places.
4. Optional: for a perfect fuel mix, ensure the temperatures of both gases are exactly the same.
5. Set the Pipe Gas Mixer to desired combination (34% O₂ + 66% H₂) Note: as the combination is a floating point number, you can also enter 0.333... or 0.666... with a labeler to get a more precise mix.
6. Turn on Pipe Gas Mixer
7. Place an empty Gas Canister in Gas Tank Storage.

Gases and Liquids
Elements	Compounds	Mixtures	Other
		Fuel (66.6% H2 + 33.3% O2) Superfuel (50% H2 + 50% N2O) Air (75% N2 + 25% O2)	Atmosphere Coolant