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Volatiles

Specific heat	20.4 Joule / mol

Description

Volatiles is a combustible fuel. It is refined from Ice (Volatiles)
- Stationpedia

Volatiles or H₂ is a combustible gas in the presence of Oxygen and the breathing gas of the Zrilian species. The main source of Volatiles on most planets is in the form of Ice (Volatiles) that can be mined on the surface. Volatiles will autoignite at 300 Celcius or above in the presence of Oxygen, and autoignite at 50 Celcius or above in the presence of Nitrous Oxide.

Composition

Denoted with the name Volatile, it is a homogenous compound made up of Hydrogen, Chlorine and Hydrocarbons. This means that it is poisonous due to the Chlorine, but also combustible due to the Hydrogen and Methane portions and can be turned into Water with Oxygen in a H2 Combustor that has a self-contained catalyst which helps free the Hydrogen atoms.

Possible compound: CH₃Cl (Chloromethane)

Usage

See also: Fuel

Different ratios of Volatiles and Oxygen will produce different temperatures and pressures during combustion. Combustion will create a large amount of Heat, pressure, and Carbon Dioxide. This reaction is useful inside a Furnace for smelting ores and creating alloys, but can be catastrophic when inside a Canister or a room.

Currently as of version v0.1.1089.5513, it is labeled in the atmospheric analyzer as H₂, but it is not Hydrogen.. When burned, it produces heat, Pollutants, and Carbon Dioxide in the following reaction:

2 Volatiles + 1 O₂ → 3 X + 6 CO₂ + 2×Enthalpy_volatiles heat energy

1 Volatiles + 1 N₂O → 2 N₂ + 2 CO₂ + 2×Enthalpy_volatiles heat energy

Enthalpy of volatiles is 286000 Joules, this is per amount of Moles of matter.

Since both reactions results in same amount of heat, but the one with Nitrous Oxide results with less moles, it produces much more heat per amount of matter (2.25 times more heat energy per mole of reaction products). Also, Nitrogen has lower heat capacity than pollutant, which results in even higher temperature.

This reaction is inconsistent with volatiles being simple hydrocarbons (too much CO₂ is produced), but it may be consistent with more complex organic molecules. If either volatiles or oxidizer is below 0.3mmoles, it reacts completely without any residue. The reaction rate by default (for example: in atmosphere) depends on temperature as clamp01(1 / (0.002 * (T_C + 273.0)^1.6 + 0.05) / 5 for oxygen as an oxidizer, and clamp01(1 / (0.0025 * (T_C + 273.0)^1.01 + 0.05) / 5 for nitrous oxide. Thus, the maximum default reaction rate is 0.2 and is valid at temperatures below 211C when without nitrous oxide and 107C when enough nitrous oxide is present (>~5%). After that reaction rate decreases logarithmically. At temperatures above 460C, nitrous enriched fuel combusts faster (at approx. 2x rate) than oxygen only. At higher temperatures, the difference is even greater, thus making the reaction more efficient and violent. Some devices (like H2 Combustor or Gas Fuel Generator) increases rate of reaction (to 0.9 i.e. 90% in both cases).

If a combusting gas mix contains Volatiles, NOS, and O2, they all will react proportionally at same rate, according to aforementioned reactions (i.e. at 90% reaction rate and ideally balanced mix, each component will decrease by 90% from it's original amount). When mix is unbalanced and have either excess of volatiles or oxidizers, then proportions decrease accordingly, i.e. with excess of volatiles, only the amount of volatiles corresponding to amount of oxidizers (2 per Oxygen, 1 per Nitrous Oxide) will decrease proportionally; with excess of oxidizers, similarly, only the amount of oxidizers corresponding to the amount of volatiles is decreased at reaction rate, i.e. oxygen reacts at half the rate of nitrous oxide.

Volatiles have a specific heat of 20.4 Joule / mol.

Notes

• The Specific heat of 20 Joule / mol is in-between the specific heat of Hydrogen and Methane.
• The actual Autoignition temperature of Chloromethane in Oxygen is 625 °C (1,157 °F; 898 K), the game grossly underestimated the iginition temperature by about 11 times.
• Seems that a concentration of Volatiles greater than 6% in an atmosphere it is lethal to plants, keep attention on that designing a greenhouse, because Advanced Composter will release Volatiles during the process.
• Enthalpy of Hydrogen (H₂) combustion is precisely 286 kJ/mol
• As far as rocketry is concerned, Volatiles have a mass of 62.5 mol/kg
• Given the above, Volatiles have a molar mass of 16, suggesting it really is methane (CH₄).

Sources

Volatiles can be collected from the following sources:

Source	Amount
Biomass	8 mol
Ice (Volatiles)	22 mol
Ore (Cobalt)	1 mol

Can be also obtainable by trading.

References

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