Combustor

The Combustor allows for controlled combustion of volatile gases. When fed with Hydrogen and Oxygen it will output Steam which can be cooled for drinking water or hydroponics.

-Stationpedia

Combustor

Paintable	Yes
Constructable in Rockets	No
Operation
Power Usage	10W
Volume	100 L
Thermal Convection	0.5056462
Thermal Radiation	0.5056462
Solar Heating	0.5056462
Prefab Hash	1840108251
Prefab Name	H2Combustor
Construction
Placed with	Kit (Atmospherics)
Placed on	Small Grid
Paintable	Yes
Requires Frame	Yes
Stage 1
Deconstruction
Deconstructed with	Drill
Item received	Kit (Atmospherics)

Description

Burns a fuel mixture to produce high-temperature byproducts.

To generate electricity with fuel instead, see the Gas Fuel Generator. Alternatively, the heat generated by the H2 Combustor may be used with a Stirling Engine to generate power at a lower efficiency.

However, while lower efficiency than a Gas Fuel Generator, in terms of energy output per mole of fuel input, a Stirling Engine is a practical and effective first step for cooling the output due to the fact that it generates power from cooling, rather than consuming power to cool the output (such as with an Air Conditioner). Depending on the exact setup, and how efficiently the Stirling Engine can be cooled (best on cold non-vacuum planets like Europa and Mars), it's possible for the Stirling Engine to offset the power cost of the Combustor, Filtration, and the entire rest of the cooling system, resulting in a zero-loss or even net-positive system. Alternatively, the outputs may be air-cooled using radiators on cooler planets or in a vacuum.

Characteristics

• Rate of fuel consumption from the input, and thus rate of production, is based on the difference in pressure between input and internal atmosphere.
• Transfers gases from the input into its internal atmosphere, moving from 100 kPa*10L when unassisted to 200 atm*10L with a 60.7 MPa pressure gradient.
• Combusts 99% of the fuel passed into it. Imprecise ratios will result in unburnt excess in the output.
• Has an internal volume of 100L, where the product of the combustion is stored before being equalized to the output pipe.
• The unit, and gas inside it, will interact with the surrounding environment, as well as radiating heat in a vacuum (and thus cooling the gas inside it). In an air-filled room, this will significantly heat the surroundings.
• Each tick that the unit is turned on, it will first equalize its internal volume with the output pipe network, before pulling in and combusting more fuel to add to the internal volume.
  • This only occurs when the unit is turned on, so if the unit is switched off, whatever gas remains in the unit will continue cooling through radiation or convection without equalizing to the output pipe.
  • Since the equalization occurs before more fuel is pulled in, after the first tick the unit is on, it will have gases stored inside it but won't have pushed any to the output pipe yet.
  • Has a Mode variable that can be set to 0 to allow the unit to be kept on, and continue to equalize gases with the output, without pulling more fuel in.
• Consumes only 10 W of power even when running.

Logic

These are all the logic parameters of the device.

Parameter	Type	Access	Description
On	Boolean	Read/Write	The current state of the device, 0 for off, 1 for on.
Mode	Boolean	Read/Write	Whether the unit pulls in more fuel to combust, if the unit is also turned on. 1 (default) for pulling more fuel in, 0 to disable input.
Activate	Boolean	Read/Write	Whether the unit pulled fuel in last tick. May not sync with Mode if no fuel could be pulled from the input.
RequiredPower	Float	Read-only	Idle and active operating power quantity. 10W.
Error	Boolean	Read-only	1 if the device is in error state, otherwise 0.
Power	Float	Read-only	Can be read to return if the device is correctly powered or not, set via power system, return 1 if powered and 0 if not.
Setting	Integer	Read/Write	No apparent effect.
Lock	Boolean	Read/Write	1 if a device is locked, otherwise 0, can be set in most devices and prevents the user from writing values.
PrefabHash	Integer	Read-only	The hash of the structure.
Maximum	Float	Read-only	Maximum setting of the device.
Ratio	Float	Read-only	Percentage conversion of the Setting parameter.

See Also

• Kit (Atmospherics)