The water treatment-/heatsink-/dirt- and pO2production-system

[mr pink]

[Update] I have loaded this to the current build and it doesnt work anymore. Thanks for reading anyway.

Disclaimer:

If you are not interested in detailed description and a bit „Bla Bla“ I would not recommend this thread.

If you do not have sufficient materials and working tech to build this machine I would not recommend this thread.

Backround:

I always wanted to use the aquatuner for good use since it came out (round about outbreak update, I think). When I saw a video from brothgar about this I tried to build such a system. This is Version 5, the biggest one.

I also try to see everything in the game as a resource even the heat.

 

Needed materials: (sorry i was to lazy to count exactly)

- more then 12 t of gold amalgan (heat proofed machines)

- a lot of tons of iron and iron ore (automation, power lines and utility buildings*)

- tons of abyssalite (insulation and liquid pipes)

- tons of diamond (temp shift plates, maybe you need not that many)

- about 2 t of tungsten (heat<->cold contact)

- about 1 t of wolframite (liquid tepedizer)

- granite and igneous rock (all the other stuff)

- about 48 t of crude oil

- about 11 t of petroleum

- plastic production recommended

- micromanagement without dealing with major crisis recommended

plus

- the stuff to power that thing

 

*not the utilities buildings menu - I mean ( liquid vents, air flow tiles, doors etc....)

Overview

1: PH2O water storage (poop water and industrial water surplus)

2: main H2O tank in the vault

3: prewarm chamber (tepedizer heat up PH2O to 85°C)

4: steam phase (using petroleum between 142°C and 152°C)

5: condenser phase (using heat<->cold contact, temp shift plates and a vacuum to drag the steam)

6: cooler (using oil pumps connected to steam phase(4))

7: fresh H2O distributor (regulated by automation completly)

8: an example of an application for the heat sink ability (sleat wheat farm)

Spoiler

In short, where it is useful I have automated the following processes:

- PH2O from (1) is pumped into (3).

- There it is heated up and then pumped to (4) where it will be separated into steam (about 99%) and dirt (about 1%).

- The steam condenseses into water at (5). From there the water is pumped into (7) where it is either pumped into (2) or further cooled or/and pumped to the oil reservoirs(not in the picture).

- (6) and (8) will be discussed later.

 

I'm sorry it is math again:

I just want to talk about why this MUST work from my point of view.

Let's assume the laws of physics from our world apply to this game in a (slightly different) way.

Let's also assume that we have 100kg(m) of PH2O(cp1) at a temperature of 109.4°C(T1) (not steam but close).

 

To make steam we bring it up to 119.4°C(T2) (+10K).

(If physics apply) we have now:

 

m = 100kg

T1 = 109.4°C

T2 = 119.4°C

cp1 = 6 kJ/(kg*K) (specific heat capacity of PH2O)

(If physics apply) this formula would help us:

E = m * cp1 * (T2-T1)

E = Energy/Heat(+) we need to add to make 100kg PH2O into 99% steam and 1% dirt

E = 100kg * 6kJ/(kg*K) * (119.4°C – 109.4°C)

E = +6000kJ

 

Let's ignore the dirt for now and assume we have 100kg(m) of steam(cp2) at a temperature at 119.4°C(T1).

Now we want to cool that steam(cp2) back down to 109.4°C(T2)(-10K).

(If physics apply) we have now:

 

m = 100kg

T1 = 119.4°C

T2 = 109.4°C

cp2 = 4,179 kJ/(kg*K) (specific heat capacity of steam and H2O)

(If physics apply) this formula would help us:

E = m * cp2 * (T2-T1)

E = Energy/Heat(-) we need to remove to make 100kg steam (119.4°C) into 100kg steam (109.4°C)

E = 100kg * 4,179kJ/(kg*K) * (109.4°C – 119.4°C)

E = -4179kJ

 

(E = -4152,01kJ with 99% steam and 1% dirt (cp3 =1,48kJ/(kg*K)))

This is a thought experiment but it is clear that you will gain a surplus(~30%) of „cooling“ energy when using a heat exchanger like the aquatuner in the right way. That is what this machine does.

Let's talk (power):

It is pretty straight forward but I want to mention a few details to keep in mind.

 

1: upper transformer (straight forward)

1.1: MAIN switch (shuts down the whole system I will come to that in the maintenance post)

2: lower transformer (straight forward, also powers the pump from the poop tank)

2.1: power switch for the gas pumps (I will come to that in the maintenance post)

3: maintenance shaft and vacuum insulation

Spoiler

A few words on the shaft (3). As you can see the heavy watt joint plates creating the problem to keep the heat in the system or the „cold“ out. Thats why I use this shaft with the known concept of vacuum insulation (you will see in the temperture overlay). And it has also the application to allow your dupes to collect the dirt from time to time (maintenance).

It gets messy (liquid pipes):

1: the core module for this system – the cooler

2: fresh water distributor

2.1: this pipe goes to the oil reservoirs

3: the PH2O distribution for the system

3.1: in flow direction-> liquid shut off and liquid valve

3.2: in flow direction-> liquid shut off and liquid valve

4: heat adder

5: heat adder (not connected at the moment)

6: heat adder

7: heat adder

Spoiler

The cooler (1) is build straight forward. One oil pump (controlled via temp. switch) to one aquatuner and back to the oil. When you use only this setup without (4), (5), (6) and (7) the result would be that the oil will get colder and colder to the point where you are unable to heat up more water. This would be the result when you think the thought experiment at the beginning to the end.

To prevent this you need to add more heat to the system (heat sink ability). The best way would be to pump PH2O from the prewarm chamber through (6) in a loop back. I have implemented this but i will not go into that in detail because I rarely use it. But it is good to create lots of steam, if you need water and dont care about it's temperature.

The second way would be to cool your fresh water to the temperature you want as you can see in (2), one shut off valve leads to (6) and back into (2) via the liquid filter. The other shut offs go to the oil reservoirs (2.1) and to the main tank in the vault.

The third way is the example application (sleat wheat farm on the left) where I pump oil (temp controlled and using temp shift plates) through (4) back to it. I use the same method with (7) for my vault cooler (to far away to show in detail). (5) is backup because I dont have much need for that at the moment.

(3.1) and (3.2) are the PH2O supply for the system. The shut offs are temp controlled from inside the steam chamber and the valve makes the flow smoother. You can skip the valve but the shut off puts through 10kg/s and this will end in having PH2O in the steam chamber sooner or later because the PH2O vaporizes not quickly enough especially when you operate the machine in low power mode. And you cant put the shut off in the steam chamber to close the pipe distance because refined metals are worst in overheat temperature then metal ores, right? Makes sense!

 

Just (gas pipes):

1: Sacrificial pump

2: PO2 pump

Spoiler

There is not much to say about this. The only purpose of those is to create a vacuum during the set up and maintenance phase.

A few words to (1): This gas pump is important because it sucks in the most volume but it will break during operation. I disable auto repair and replace it when I do maintenance. With this I do not loose materials but I realize that this will be patched out. A small sacrifice but worth it.

A few words to (2): This pumps out the PO2 vaporizes from the PH2O and evacuates the chamber before turning it on which will produce germ free PO2 after set up. Its very little but its something.

Automate that or leave it (automation):

I have marked every sensors with its setting and a few shut offs with its purpose direction.

„a“ before the number means „above“

„b“ before the number means „below“

All gates are either „AND“ or „NOT“ except the 2 most right ones. Those are „BUFFER“.

1: Switching between fresh water and PH2O cooling - I wont talk about this – you figure it out.

2: This is only used during maintenance to open/close the inner doors.

3: This junction shall represent the hydro switch in the vault at below 50kg setting.

Spoiler

I do not want to get too much into detail of the automation. I think if you make it this far you will definitly figure the system out.

Just the concept of the fresh water distribution circuitry: IF there is enough water in the distributor THEN the vault tank is prioritized only accepting water at below 20°C OR one of the shut offs shall be opened. This is what this circuitry does.

Sitting together at the camping fire (temperature):

I just realized that this last picture is indeed the best example to see how it works.

1: I wanted to drag your attention to where my cursor is and the vacuum gas state.

2: this represents the vacuum insulation

Spoiler

This is why you need vacuum in the system because this vacuum (1) serves as a „gas pump“ without using power. You can do this without vacuum but I noticed that it would not go as smoothly. It is also used during maintenance to condense the rest of the steam before going in. I think the rest speak for itself and shows the function of the system.

Conclusion:

Use your heat! It doesnt have to be all destroyed by wheezeworts and nullifiers. Dont get me wrong those are great.

It consumes a lot of power and a water sieve is much, much cheeper. But almost every higher tech power produces PH2O either through CO2->oil or directly which you need anyway to run that system. And you get the heat sink ability, fresh water at the temperature you want and a few ressources.

I hope you find this useful and informative. Im happy to get comments, critics and questions. I will post the maintenance manual soon.

Thanks to Klei Entertainment for this awesome game, to brothgar for the inspiration, to all you „debug guys“ giving me concepts to try out so I can play the game and to all the readers and commentators in advance.

Cheers

mr pink

[Mutineer]

So, basically, you boiling water by cooling oil and then cooling water by heating oil. There is a question I do not see a solution in the picture, durt. It will accumulate and eventually block system. I do not see any removal mechanism unless I am blind.

[mr pink]

Basically, yes that is what it does.

To your question: There is none if you refer to an automated removal such as the conveyor system. I thought about it but the reason why not is simple: It is too hot in there and the conveyor arm will break.

But it has a manual removal system. The dupes. I will show soon (I hope today) in the maintensance post. It is not very fancy but reliable since better materials will come out.

Accumulation of dirt:

1. Only 1 % of the PH2O becomes dirt which would result in 200g/s of dirt when putting 20kg/s of PH2O into it. And this mass of dirt is scattered over 6 tiles. (You can see one ball of dirt jumping in front of the aquatuner in pic 1). And this little mass is added to the chunks that are already there. I pump in 2.5kg/s in the lower section and 1kg in the upper.

Note: This machine as seen is running for more then 60 cycles. I have also build this already 4 times and the dirt never accumulates. I cant say with 100% certainty it wont but it has never happened. It is not enough mass.

mr pink

[mr pink]

Maintenance Post

As mentioned I will post the manual on how I do maintenance. It takes some time, thats the downside.

First, I turn off the MAIN SWITCH: With all the saveties in place the machine will pevent itself from overheating and shuts down and I will wait.

Second, after 5 cycles, vacuum has established in the steam chamber.

Third, I open up...

..., the doors. Note::Inner or outer first is not important.

I mop it, sweep it, clean it and replace the "Sacrificial pump". (Exosuits required)

Forth, I close the outer door and turn on the gas pumps to remove the annoying gases (all of it, its important).

Note:Sequence is not important but it should be done close together to save time.

Fifth, I turn off the gas pumps and close the inner doors.

Sixth, I turn on the MAIN SWITCH and the machines fires up again.

It takes around 8 cycles if managed fast.

Sidenote: I would build this the same way even with conveyor system because the heat conductivity problem with the heavy watt joint plates still applies and wiring every aquatuner with conductive wire would make the machine bigger (more expansive).

As always Im happy to get comments, critics or questions.

Cheers

mr pink

[blash365]

Correct me if i am wrong, but isnt this more or less similar (just alot less compact) to variant 1 of

 

?

[mr pink]

15 minutes ago, blash365 said:

Correct me if i am wrong, but isnt this more or less similar (just alot less compact) to variant 1 of?

 

You are right it is. Thank you for that I didnt have that post on my radar.

I realized that all of what Im saying was nothing new. smart guys are out there a lot.

Im just playing the game and for me it is important to build (engineer) things in it. The concept is good but what about retrieving the dirt, the (possibly) PO2, distributing the water or repair something.

I just wanted to add a machine to the community that is maximizes the efficiency out the concept.

Thank you again for this. It is very informative.

Cheers mr pink

[blash365]

20 minutes ago, mr pink said:

You are right it is. Thank you for that I didnt have that post on my radar.

I didnt intend to discredit your post. I just wanted to be able to categorize it quickly for myself for later use. Thanks for your very thorough post.

[PhailRaptor]

Are you not able to build a Sweeper Arm and Conveyor Loader out of Tungstun?  Isn't Tungstun nearly invulnerable to heat issues due to it's thermal properties?

[mr pink]

18 hours ago, blash365 said:

I didnt intend to discredit your post.

I didnt see it as discreditation. You just reminded me why I wanted to post this. As you can see in the dev. build I really struggled a long time if to do this. Thank you for your thanks .

17 hours ago, PhailRaptor said:

  Isn't Tungstun nearly invulnerable to heat issues due to it's thermal properties?

The material itself yes but not a machine build out of it. Doesnt matter if its tungsten, gold, copper or iron the overheat temperature for machines is handled differently. (Set to 75°C or 125°C(tepedizer or aquatuner) except you are able to build out of gold amalgan then 125°C or 175°C).

Cheers

mr pink