Rene PlaysWe did it! We may have had to build a whole new power station, gave several of our duplicants hypothermia, and forced them all to stand in a pool of their own waste, but we have achieved the goal of creating breathable, cool oxygen from water.
A breakdown of the parts shown:
- first we pump hot water out of the geyser at around 60 C
- this water enters a series of storage tanks to give us a little extra buffer
- the water is pumped into a sealed chamber with two electrolyzers
- the electrolyzers consume power and emit oxygen and hydrogen
- the mixed gases are pumped through filters to separate them
- the hydrogen gas is sent to a hydrogen generator, where it’s burned off for a little extra power.
- the oxygen gas is around 46 C leaving the generator room. That’s too hot to send directly into the base, so it gets pumped in insulated pipes to our cooling loop.
- the cooling loop is a radiant gas pipe that exchanges heat with the surroundings. It’s bathed in cold liquid from a nearby cold polluted water geyser.
- the temperature of the gas leaving the cooling loop is around -13 C
- the cold oxygen flows into the base. Despite insulated pipes, it still enters the base around 3 C.
This system helps counteract the heat bleed from the surrounding environment, which will slowly cook our base.
The system connects two geysers, which are our main source of sustainable resources. We now need to worry about our coolant; it will eventually absorb too much heat to be useful, and will need to be dumped out. I want to pump it by the power station, doing one last, less extreme heat exchange, and then send it out to the bottom layers of the map, where very hot magma can instantly separate it into steam, cook off the impurities, and in the future, drive a steam turbine.
But first, we need to worry about more pressing issues! We’re up to 10 residents now, and food is scarce. We need to find better ways to feed everyone. Next time!