Another Volcano Based Regolith Melter, Petroleum Boiler, and Steam Generator

[axxionx12]

Gallery is listed here, but I will attach files and descriptions as well.

 

This is my current iteration of the volcano based petroleum converter currently without space materials. It allows full recovery of the igneous rock that forms without any of it becoming a tile of igneous rock. The volcano is in a vacuum room that drips to into the basin where regolith is melted (adding heat) until it becomes an acceptable 1450C. At this point, the magma is cool enough to fall into the drip chamber on the right side. It drips down and conducts the heat through diamond window tile to the crude oil below. The 2 tile wide dripping chamber prevents the igneous rock from turning into a tile. The crude oil is heated to petroleum and at 410C, the pumps on the right kick in and put more crude oil in. I haven't calculated how much petroleum is converted, but it's pretty quick. The petroleum then drips into the chamber below and is cooled with a petroleum based loop (can be upgraded to super coolant) that heats water to power the steam engines below. The steam engines are hooked up in series and will generate about 340watts of power each. With the current volcano, I can run maybe 2 steam engines, but made more room if necessary. Finally, you can drop the rock into the crude to speed up the heat transfer. This can be done at both layers to get the igneous rock down to a cool 140C. With exosuits, the liquid locks keep everything in a vacuum, but allow dupes to take the rock if necessary.

 

This is the piping for the petroleum (or super coolant) loop. If the heat in the steam chamber is over 140, the pump turns off and goes to the next chamber. I have found that steam under 140C allows self cooling of the turbines. The cooled petroleum is piped off to a powerplant with insulated piping where the rest is deleted when it goes to a cooled petroleum generator.

 

 

Automation as discussed above. The regolith shuts off at 1450C and the door opens. If the magma builds up in the drip chamber, it closes the drip door. If you switch the hydro sensor on the right of the drip chamber, it will drop the rock into the crude converting well. The temp sensor in the crude converting well is set to activate above 410C and turns on the pumps. 3 liquid vents makes sure nothing gets turned into sour gas. Finally, the hydro and temp sensor at the bottom does not active the liquid pump until it is 3 tiles high and the temperature is under 160C (to allow proper removal of heat via steam turbine).

 

 

This is the shipping setup for the regolith. I found that conveyor output causes regolith to build up too quickly and does not melt fast enough. The single conveyor receptacle is optimal.

[OxCD]

I personally would worry about cooling turbines with its output. Sounds risky as repair intervention is not an easy option when setups are as much closed. Therefore, if I get it, you had to set 4 turbines just to balance 140°C steam as a maximum, while only one could handle the cooling system, if higher steam temp is successfully managed. I think there is meliorative point here to work on.

There is some good idea also, still from my point of view. Triple liquid vent to speed up oil filing process is smart, magma lock is straightforward and effective, and heat conductivity using liquid viscosity is a concept that have some potential.

In any case, I like this combined setup

[axxionx12]

The steam turbines set up in series keep the steam from going over 140C in any one chamber, so the steam  engine stays right around 99C self cooled. The steam generators don't overheat at 100C in the classic sense. They just don't work until they drop under 100C again. No overheat issues have happened yet! Also note the automated liquid shutoffs are in a vacuum to prevent petroleum from transferring heat in that small 1x2 space.

 

The petroleum touching the door in the collection chamber was a bit of a design error. I will need to rotate the door so it isn't transferring all the precious heat that's used to convert the crude oil! 

[Nightinggale]

5 hours ago, OxCD said:

I personally would worry about cooling turbines with its output. Sounds risky as repair intervention is not an easy option when setups are as much closed.

I agree. Since the rooms are full of liquid pipes, I would add a radiant gas pipe going through all turbine rooms. Cold hydrogen can then be used to recover from overheating should it occur. This can be done automatically by placing a Building Temperature Sensor on each turbine, connect all of them to the same automation wire and let that wire control a gas shutoff valve. If one of them raises to above 99 C, then apply cooling hydrogen.

You say it's not needed, but if I'm to build one in survival, I will protect it from overheating and be happy about it even if it ends up not being needed. Just the fact that I know it will recover even without me doing anything will give me peace of mind to do other stuff and not constantly watch it.

[OxCD]

2 hours ago, axxionx12 said:

The steam turbines set up in series keep the steam from going over 140C in any one chamber, so the steam  engine stays right around 99C self cooled. The steam generators don't overheat at 100C in the classic sense. They just don't work until they drop under 100C again. No overheat issues have happened yet! Also note the automated liquid shutoffs are in a vacuum to prevent petroleum from transferring heat in that small 1x2 space.

 

The petroleum touching the door in the collection chamber was a bit of a design error. I will need to rotate the door so it isn't transferring all the precious heat that's used to convert the crude oil! 

I wasn't specially thinking about turbines overheating, but mainly about clean water boiling (breaking pipes). The max allowed temp (before gasification) is much more closer.

From a bit of experience, I've seen complex setup going wrong only after some hundred cycles. And this was soooo hellish to repair broken pipes. Now, I don't play that much borderline anymore. I always have more sensor than needed, that can block everything at anytime, and ideally that can start a "fixing patch", to allow the setup to go back into normal state.

Those shutoff under vacuum could be a pain to setup without debug/sandbox. But the idea is still here and you're correct it's useful, or even needed.

I didn't get correctly uses of the viscosity. Still, even if it wasn't intentional, I keep thinking some setup could exploit this attribute for heat exchange