Chlorination plant

[Gus Smedstad]

Chlorine is of limited use at present.

It's possible to use chlorine to create bleach stone for hand sanitizers. Hand sanitizers are actually less useful than sinks, so this is a minor demand.

If there was a building that accepted a fluid (almost always water) and chlorine, which killed all germs in the fluid and output the cleaned fluid, this would create an ongoing demand for chlorine. It would be an analog to the Ore Scrubber, but significantly more useful.

However, this would require that chlorine no longer kill germs inside reservoirs. At present this is the major use for chlorine, but it only requires a one-time investment in chlorine, rather than an ongoing chlorine cost.

[Madbro]

As long as the consumption is small enough.

Like scrubbers.

 

But actually that "reservior sterilization" is not really a exploit.

[Gus Smedstad]

I agree that reservoir sterilization is not an exploit. But if it's in the game, there's no point in using a building that consumes chlorine and power to do the same thing.

My primary thought is that chlorine's use is the only gas in the game that doesn't have an ongoing demand, even though there are renewable sources like chlorine geysers. Really, any game reason for actually consuming chlorine would be good.

[Guest]

If you think about it, chlorine has more uses than most other gases. It provides a sterile environment, it actively disinfects, it the best insulating gas, the ore scrubber uses it, squeeky pufts, lillies and gas grass need it. It is just that all of those uses have a relatively minor utility in the game or are very niche. 

[Gus Smedstad]

It's the "niche" part that's the problem. Oxygen's vital for obvious reasons, carbon dioxide gives you polluted water for dirt, hydrogen's needed for a variety of things including rockets.

Sterilization with chlorine isn't an ongoing demand, you fill a room once and you're done. The ore scrubber has no real value because you can just store slime in a chlorine room and there's no ongoing cost. Squeeky puffs are just a way of converting chlorine to bleach stone, and there's no demand for bleach stone. Balm lillies don't consume chlorine, they just need a chlorine atmosphere. If I need an insulating atmosphere, I create a vacuum.