Fermenter

Fermenter

Paintable	Yes
Constructable in Rockets	No
Operation
Power Usage	10-210w
Prefab Hash	1103525139
Prefab Name	StructureFermenter
Construction
Placed with	Kit (Atmospherics)
Placed on	Small Grid
Paintable	Yes
Requires Frame	Yes
Is Airtight?	No
Stage 1
Next Stage Construction
Constructed with item	2 x Kit (Pipe)
Deconstruction
Deconstructed with	Hand Drill
Item received	Kit (Atmospherics)
Stage 2
Next Stage Construction
Constructed with tool	Welding Torch
Constructed with item	5 x Steel Sheets
Deconstruction
Deconstructed with	Wrench
Item received	2 x Kit (Pipe)
Stage 3
Deconstruction
Deconstructed with	Angle Grinder
Item received	5 x Steel Sheets

Description

The Fermenter is a machine that converts bioproducts into Alcohol and Polluted Water.

It consumes 10 W when idle, and 210 W when processing items (taking 20 seconds per item).

Conversion rates

Different inputs result in different processing rates, shown as follows:

Conversion Rate Table

Input	Alcohol / unit (Moles)	Polluted Water / unit (Moles)	Alcohol / Harvest (Moles)	Polluted Water / Harvest (Moles)
Decayed Food	1	0.05	N/A	N/A
Seeds (Any)	6	0.3	6	0.3
Biomass	10	1	N/A	N/A
Blueberry	18	0.9	36	1.8
Cocoa	6	0.3	18	0.9
Corn	40	2	120	6
Darga Fern	2	0.1	6	0.3
Fern	2	0.1	4	0.2
Hades Flower	0	0	0	0
Hay	3	0.15	45	3
Mushroom	2	0.1	6	0.3
Potato	8	0.4	16	0.8
Pumpkin	18	0.9	54	2.7
Rice	8	0.4	40	2
Soybean	6	0.3	18	0.9
Sugarcane	15	0.75	45	3
Strawberry	12	0.6	36	1.8
Tomato	12	0.6	36	1.8
Watermelon	40	2	40	2
Wheat	6	0.3	30	1.5
Winterspawn	0	0	0	0

Outputs for plants and seeds are created at 29°C, and have their polluted water contents at exactly 5% of their produced alcohol. Biomass is the only exception to this rule, generating 10% of their produced alcohol as water. Most plants benefit from being converted into Biomass first by processing them at a Recycler and Centrifuge before fermentation, although some exceptions exist. Corn and Watermelon produce more water and alcohol by being directly processed, while Blueberry, Pumpkin, Sugarcane, and Strawberry produce more alcohol (but not water) by being directly processed. If alcohol combustion byproducts are taken into account, they also produce more water by being directly procesed as well.

Production Optimization

From the conversion rate table, Pareto-optimal plants are Switchgrass (highest harvest after conversion to biomass), Corn (Highest unprocessed harvest), and Watermelon (Highest output/h on max yield fertilizer). A fermenter takes 20 seconds to process an item for a total of 180 items/hour, potentially diminishing the effectiveness of Switchgrass. However, fertilizer production requirements introduce overhead.

Because Hay is counted as biomass instead of food, it contributes towards growth cycles when used in an Advanced Composter. As such, max yield fertilizer production is best done using Wheat as input stock.

An advanced composter consumes 180 items/hour and 1.2 kmols of water to produce 60 fertilizer, 3kmol of Nitrogen and 3kmol of Methane. Stacks of fertilizer with different properties can be merged to achieve a mixture of ratio properties after fertilizer production, but at this point no analysis has been made on whether this achieves better production per plot.

Plant production data

Plant	Time between harvests(Base)	Alcohol/harvest	Harvest Cycles/h(Base)	Items/Hour/Plot(Base)	Fertilizer/hour/Plot
Switchgrass	1332	150 (no fertilizer use)	2.702	40.540
Wheat	2700	0 (used for fertilizer)	1.3	5.3 (8.6 on max yield fertilizer)	1.7 (2.8 before self-use)
Watermelon	3000	120 (max yield fertilizer)	1.2	3.6	-0.6 (2 cycles)
Corn (mature)	5400	160 (max yield fertilizer)	0.6	2.6	-0.3 (2 cycles)
Corn (seeding)	7200	200 (max yield fertilizer)	0.5	2.5	-0.25 (2 cycles)

Mixing growth cycles and yield fertilizer, we can achieve the following uses at the following ratios:

Total uses	Yield Fertilizer Proportion	Yield Boost
2	100%	2.5 (rounded to 2)
3	80%	2.2 (rounded to 2)
4	60%	1.9 (rounded to 2)
5	40%	1.6 (rounded to 2)
6	20%	1.3 (rounded to 1)
7	0%	1

In order to get a rounding to 2, the yield boost needs to be 1.5 or above. As such, the minimum yield fertilizer proportion required to achieve a yield boost of 2 is 1/3rd. Any additional food results in less throughput.

The extra slack between total uses can be replaced with growth rate.