Why don't hydrogen generators produce water?

[TV4Fun]

Hydrogen is a valid source of energy, when it is burned together with oxygen, it produces water as a byproduct. Why doesn't it work this way in ONI? Since the main way of producing hydrogen is by electrolizing water, this would help to add balance and close the resource loop a little bit.

[Ainsley4ever]

For balancing purposes I guess. Hydrogen generators don't need oxygen to operate (just like any other generator in the game) because we need that oxygen to keep duplicants alive. And because of stochiometry you would need to use all of the oxygen produced by an electrolyser to burn the excess hydrogen of that same electrolysis, thus resulting in only the starting water and some waste heat. 

[Tekky]

In reality, as soon as hydrogen gets into contact with oxygen, it will explode and form water. See the Wikipedia article on oxyhydrogen for further information.

Although I generally would prefer realistic behavior of gases in ONI, I understand that they did not implement it for gameplay reasons.

On the other hand, being forced to handle explosive gases could be interesting for gameplay.

[crypticorb]

1 hour ago, Tekky said:

In reality, as soon as hydrogen gets into contact with oxygen, it will explode and form water. See the Wikipedia article on oxyhydrogen for further information.

Although I generally would prefer realistic behavior of gases in ONI, I understand that they did not implement it for gameplay reasons.

On the other hand, being forced to handle explosive gases could be interesting for gameplay.

What? No it doesn't. The reaction between hydrogen and oxygen requires an initial combustion temperature, called the autoignition temperature, which for a 2:1 hydrogen oxygen ratio is at 570^oC, according to the same wiki page you linked.

From a realistic viewpoint, hydrogen generators are ridiculous, because there is no hydrogen reaction without a catalyst like oxygen or chlorine, forming water or hydrogen chloride, respectively. For gameplay purposes, we needed a way to destroy hydrogen, thus the generator.

[Xenologist]

47 minutes ago, crypticorb said:

hydrogen chloride

Don't you mean Hydrochloric acid?

[Ainsley4ever]

36 minutes ago, zergologist said:

Hydrochloric acid ? 

Or muriatic acid. They all basically (acidally would be more appropriate haha) mean the same. 

[Tekky]

4 hours ago, crypticorb said:

What? No it doesn't. The reaction between hydrogen and oxygen requires an initial combustion temperature, called the autoignition temperature, which for a 2:1 hydrogen oxygen ratio is at 570^oC, according to the same wiki page you linked.

Ah, yes, sorry, I forgot about that. Now I remember that, in order to trigger the explosion, I was holding the test tube under a bunsen burner in chemistry class. I didn't remember because that was over 20 years ago.

[Coolthulhu]

Because it doesn't consume oxygen.

And it doesn't consume oxygen because then it would be useless except for perpetum mobiles.