Combustor
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The Combustor performs controlled combustion of a mixture drawn from a gas input and a liquid input. A control wheel sets the ratio taken from each, much like the Gas Mixer, and the combined mixture is combusted just before being passed to the output.
What the Combustor produces depends entirely on what is fed into it. See the Gases page to find what each combination combusts into.
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| Paintable | Yes |
|---|---|
| Constructable in Rockets | No |
| Operation | |
| Power Usage | 1200W |
| Volume | 1000 L |
| Thermal Convection | 0.72315187 |
| Thermal Radiation | 0.72315187 |
| Solar Heating | 0.72315187 |
| Prefab Hash | -1037204948 |
| Prefab Name | StructureCombustor |
| Construction | |
| Placed with | Kit (Atmospherics) |
| Placed on | Small Grid |
| Paintable | Yes |
| Requires Frame | Yes |
| Stage 1 | |
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| Next Stage Construction | |
| Constructed with item | Kit (Atmospherics) |
| Deconstruction | |
| Deconstructed with | Drill |
| Item received | Kit (Atmospherics) |
| Stage 2 | |
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| Next Stage Construction | |
| Constructed with item | 2x Kit (Pipe) |
| Deconstruction | |
| Deconstructed with | Wrench |
| Item received | 2x Kit (Pipe) |
| Stage 3 | |
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| Next Stage Construction | |
| Constructed with tool | Screwdriver |
| Constructed with item | 2x Cable Coil |
Description
Burns a fuel mixture to produce high-temperature byproducts.
To generate electricity with fuel instead, see the Gas Fuel Generator. Alternatively, the heat generated by the H2 Combustor may be used with a Stirling Engine to generate power at a lower efficiency.
However, while lower efficiency than a Gas Fuel Generator, in terms of energy output per mole of fuel input, a Stirling Engine is a practical and effective first step for cooling the output due to the fact that it generates power from cooling, rather than consuming power to cool the output (such as with an Air Conditioner). Depending on the exact setup, and how efficiently the Stirling Engine can be cooled (best on cold non-vacuum planets like Europa and Mars), it's possible for the Stirling Engine to offset the power cost of the Combustor, Filtration, and the entire rest of the cooling system, resulting in a zero-loss or even net-positive system. Alternatively, the outputs may be air-cooled using radiators on cooler planets or in a vacuum.
Characteristics
- Total pumping capacity per tick from inputs is 101.325 kPa * 10 L at one network's temperature, regardless of pressure gradient.
- Only one of the two input pipes needs to be connected.
- Temperature chosen for pumping capacity calculation prioritizes liquid input temperature, then gas input temperature, then internal temperature, in that order.
- Pumping capacity is distributed across both inputs based on the Setting logic parameter, which can also be adjusted through the control wheel.
- If one of the inputs lacks sufficient contents to meet the demanded pumping capacity, additional contents are pulled from the other input in order to maintain the total pumping capacity at the cost of ratiometric balance, unlike the Gas Mixer where pumping is stopped altogether.
- The device consumes 1200 W while powered, even when idle.
- Has an internal volume of 1000 L, where the product of the combustion is stored before being equalized to the output pipe.
- Equalization only happens while the combustor is powered on and only happens unidirectionally to the output pipe.
- If the unit is switched off, whatever gas remains in the unit will continue cooling through radiation or convection without equalizing to the output pipe.
- Each tick that the unit is turned on, it will first equalize its internal volume with the output pipe network, before pulling in and combusting more fuel to add to the internal volume.
- Since the equalization occurs before more fuel is pulled in, after the first tick the unit is on, it will have gases stored inside it but won't have pushed any to the output pipe yet.
- Has a Mode variable that can be set to 0 to allow the unit to be kept on, and continue to equalize gases with the output, without pulling more fuel in.
- The unit, and gas inside it, will interact with the surrounding environment, as well as radiating heat in a vacuum (and thus cooling the gas inside it). In an air-filled room, this will significantly heat the surroundings.
Logic
These are all the logic parameters of the device.
| Parameter | Type | Access | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| On | Boolean | Read/Write | The current state of the device, 0 for off, 1 for on. |
| Mode | Boolean | Read/Write | Whether the unit pulls in more fuel to combust, if the unit is also turned on. 1 (default) for pulling more fuel in, 0 to disable input. |
| Activate | Boolean | Read/Write | Whether the unit pulled fuel in last tick. May not sync with Mode if no fuel could be pulled from the input. |
| RequiredPower | Float | Read-only | Idle and active operating power quantity. 1200 W. |
| Error | Boolean | Read-only | 1 if the device is in error state, otherwise 0. |
| Power | Float | Read-only | Can be read to return if the device is correctly powered or not, set via power system, return 1 if powered and 0 if not. |
| Setting | Float | Read/Write | Adjusts the molar intake ratio between inputs. Range: 0..100.
0: 0% liquid input, 100% gas input. 100: 100% liquid input, 0% gas input. |
| Lock | Boolean | Read/Write | 1 if a device is locked, otherwise 0, can be set in most devices and prevents the user from writing values. |
| PrefabHash | Integer | Read-only | The hash of the structure. |
| Maximum | Float | Read-only | Maximum setting of the device. |
| Ratio | Float | Read-only | Percentage conversion of the Setting parameter. |