Algae Bioreactor

[johninbaltimore]

 

Mid-tier tech:  Algae bioreactor.

Build Cost:  1t Algae, 200kg glass

Space:  3 tile wide, 4 tile high

Operation:  Small amount of clean water piped in; 120W electricity

Consumes:  4g/s CO2; 2kg/cycle water

Produces:  200g/s O2; 3kg/cycle slime

Light source.

Minor decor boost,

Algae bioreactor when continuously submerged in CO2 and supplied with water can clear the CO2 and provide O2 for 2 duplicants.  Algae grows, so excess is produced, emitted as slime (which itself can provide polluted O2).  Slime can be pressed for more algae or fed to dusk caps.

Balance:

             O2 Diffuser        Algae Bioreactor   Electrolyzer
Width                  1                       3              2
Electricity         120W                    120W           120W
Water               None              -2kg/cycle   -600kg/cycle
CO2                 None                   -2g/s           None
O2                500g/s                  200g/s         888g/s
Algae       -330kg/cycle              +1kg/cycle           None
Slime               None             Water+Algae           None
Duplicant O2           5                       2           8.88
Feeds Dupes         None                   0.373           None

• Uses 3x the space of O2 diffuser but produces 40% as much oxygen
• Produces 68 times more O2 per water consumed than electrolyzer but 23% as much O2 per day for the same power—530W to produce as much O2 as the electrolyzer does with 120W
• Only produces O2 when consuming CO2
• Consumes water; water-neutral if slime is distilled, which requires duplicant labor
• Useless amount of algae from distilling slime
• If slime is used for dusk caps—an easy way to automate—it comes far short of feeding 1 duplicant

Compared to the O2 diffuser, it uses no algae but 2.5 times as much power to make the same O2; compared to the electrolyzer, it uses much less water but 4.44 times as much power to make the same O2, with no hydrogen gas to generate power (which can be power-positive).  It produces O2 at a slower rate than either, and consumes CO2 equal to the amount produced by duplicants consuming an equivalent amount of O2.

The biggest trade-off is the power consumption versus a SPOM, since its resource consumption is otherwise minimal.

[Sasza22]

A cool idea. Personally i`d rather see it getting CO2 piped in. Would be cool if it`s efficiency was dependednt on the amount of light. Then it would make sense to put those exposed to sunlight. A more industrial way to produce slime would be pretty useful.

[johninbaltimore]

It's a light source, hence the power consumption.  Real-life they're outside and consume no power.