Harvesting Crazy Power from Volcano using Steam Turbine

[EnergeticSecret]

Hello guys this is my first time writing a new topic in ONI forum in fact this is the first time i ever write in any game forum so please forgive my awkward writing

Volcanoes produce crazy amount of heat and if we want to harvest the heat energy the obvious answer is using steam turbine. That's what i did and here's my setup:

The main idea is trapping the heat from the volcano using ceramic insulation tile and vacuum everything inside. Then the heat is going to be transferred to water which ultimately turn into steam.

So i'm going to explain few important notes in this setup.

1. I'm using diamond window tile as the conductor since it has better thermal conductivity than metal tiles and also way cheaper with only costs 100kg of diamond each. I make a fork shape at the bottom so that the heat will be transferred quicker to the conductor. And the "magma room" is enclosed with conductor in case i want to add new "turbine room" and i can draw new conductor line easily.

2. the heat transferred to turbine room is controlled using thermium automatic door which connected to the thermo sensor. the door is set to open when thermo sensor detects temperature of above 230C.

3. 4 out 5 turbine intakes are closed to decrease the heat consumed (those tiles at the bottom of turbine) thus maximizing electricity harvested from the the volcano.

4. i built automatic door under the final intake to prevent hydrogen to be stuck there, which will be explained later. i'm using gold amalgam for these doors.

5. And yes i'm using gas conflict exploit for this setup. if you didn't know basically if you put expansive gas at the top of turbine it will trick the turbine to think that the pressure above is way less than under and enable the turbine to run constantly provided there is enough heat. some people report that this exploit may delete some of the steam from turbine output but i have another turbine with the same exploit to cool my aquatuners and after 100 cycles or so the steam inside is more or less the same. i don't know maybe it's been fixed 

6. there is vacuum space between wire bridges to prevent escaping heat.

7. the automation wires inside the setup are built from thermium if it's gonna exposed to extreme heat, i.e inside conductor line, and from steel elsewhere. maybe it's not necessary but the last thing i want is my setup to fail just because of broken things...

8. i made a main entrance right at the bottom of magma room which also surrounded by vacuum to clean the magma when it's already cooled down and can't heat the steam anymore. then just wait for the volcano to erupt again. this way i can clean the magma room periodically with minimum heat loss and keeping the magma room vacuum.

9. fun little fact, currently my entire colony using electricity generated from steam turbine and solar panel which means UNLIMITED POWEEEERRRR.

here are some pictures with different overlays:

And now let's see how i built this setup in my survival world:

1. First i build everything according to the picture with the main entrance open (stairs at the bottom of magma room) and holes on each side connecting magma room to turbine rooms. inner wire bridges and 2 window tiles on top of thermium doors aren't constructed yet and i set all doors to open. then vacuum everything using gas pumps. i don't know if the door need to be opened to achieve complete vacuum but i'd rather play safe, maybe somebody can explain it.

2. then i deconstruct all the pumps, clean debris, and construct the rest of setup. i did it all while the volcano is still covered. after everything is set, except main entrance is still open, then i wait for the volcano to be idle and dig it out and quickly close main entrance.

3. the purpose of putting automated door under turbine is so that i can close it and prevent hydrogen to be stuck right at the turbine intake. it has to be steam there or else the turbine won't work.

4. i close the doors under the turbines and start filling each turbine room with 150kg of H and ~1 ton of water. then set thermo sensor setting correctly and wait for the magma to heat the water.

5. after water turned into steam and all of hydrogen went to the top part of turbine room open the automated doors and ta-da there's only steam under the turbine

6. now let physics does it work and start harvesting "free" electricity.

7. interesting notes: i set automation on my turbines to prevent overproduction, duh, and the OR gate is there if i want to deplete magma's heat and start cleaning "cold" magma or if i want to take a fully operational turbine pic

Lastly i hope this topic is useful to you and also i apologize for my bad grammar. Cheers.

[Coolthulhu]

You can increase heat transfer by adding tempshift plates between the diamond tiles.

Though volcano steam turbines are kind of pointless as an energy source. They depend on exploits in any practical build and the only question is which exploits. With the right exploits (chlorine clamping), the volcano is not needed and you just get free energy.

[avilmask]

Yeah, I can't really take seriously shenanigans with automated doors.

[ONIfreak]

1 hour ago, Coolthulhu said:

 With the right exploits (chlorine clamping), the volcano is not needed and you just get free energy.

It always makes me laugh if someone use term "right exploits". Like there would be "wrong one" as well

I like this build.

It is something different then what i have seen so far. Make use of resources (volcano) in game and features ( no heat transfer in vacuum is feature btw. I think that was devs intentions not simple overlooked behave). The only exploit i see here is single tile on steam turbine which can be easly replaced adding multiple doors.

Thumb up for nice design. 

[beowulf2010]

24 minutes ago, ONIfreak said:

The only exploit i see here is single tile on steam turbine which can be easly replaced adding multiple doors.

Thumb up for nice design. 

The other major exploit is the alternate gas above the turbine to get around the required gas pressure difference. 

But you're right, it is a nice clean build. 

[EnergeticSecret]

2 hours ago, Coolthulhu said:

You can increase heat transfer by adding tempshift plates between the diamond tiles.

Though volcano steam turbines are kind of pointless as an energy source. They depend on exploits in any practical build and the only question is which exploits. With the right exploits (chlorine clamping), the volcano is not needed and you just get free energy.

are you referring to steam behemoth by @mathmanican? i think that exploit is just too crazy, like might as well play sandbox

48 minutes ago, ONIfreak said:

It always makes me laugh if someone use term "right exploits". Like there would be "wrong one" as well

I like this build.

It is something different then what i have seen so far. Make use of resources (volcano) in game and features ( no heat transfer in vacuum is feature btw. I think that was devs intentions not simple overlooked behave). The only exploit i see here is single tile on steam turbine which can be easly replaced adding multiple doors.

Thumb up for nice design. 

my goal from the beginning is to utilize heat from volcano since i never bother to open it up. can you explain with single tile exploit? i thought the only exploit used is gas conflict?

[harmonium]

Nice job man 

[ONIfreak]

16 minutes ago, EnergeticSecret said:

can you explain with single tile exploit? i thought the only exploit used is gas conflict?

Blocking 4 tiles from steam turbine and let it run just on one. I think intention for this machine was to use all five so really strugle to make that flow and in exchange get 2k power. Blocking 4 is like 1/5th of the requirement.

[EnergeticSecret]

34 minutes ago, ONIfreak said:

Blocking 4 tiles from steam turbine and let it run just on one. I think intention for this machine was to use all five so really strugle to make that flow and in exchange get 2k power. Blocking 4 is like 1/5th of the requirement.

oh so it's also considered as exploit. noted

[ONIfreak]

5 minutes ago, EnergeticSecret said:

oh so it's also considered as exploit. noted

I think so. I never saw any "official list of exploits" if something like that exists

[beowulf2010]

57 minutes ago, ONIfreak said:

I think so. I never saw any "official list of exploits" if something like that exists

It's definitely a fairly major exploit. The same full 2kw for 20% the heat energy and steam flow? Imagine getting the full 888/112 g/s out of an electrolizer for only 200 g/s of water. Or getting 5kg/s petroleum for only 2kg crude oil. 

This being said, I'm in the camp of "Abuse the F out of bugs so that they get fixed correctly the first time." 

So block those ports, float the hydrogen and clamp that chlorine.