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This article has not been revised for the current version (U51-600112). It was last updated for LU-356355. It may contain inaccuracies. |
Hydrogen Generators produces power when supplied with Hydrogen gas through a Gas Pump.
Hydrogen Generators are the most heat-efficient among continuous generators, producing only 5 DTU per Watt.
Pumping other gases into the generator will damage it; Gas Filter is strongly advised. Works great combined with an Electrolyzer.
Practicality
If your map was lucky enough to spawn a Hydrogen Vent, simply hooking up a Gas Pump, and pumping its output into the Hydrogen Generators will provide some bonus energy. However, geysers have certain times when they do not produce anything, so your power room might fall temporarily dormant along with the Geyser. It can be solved with a big battery array (more power loss), or by stockpiling and rationing hydrogen (less power loss).
If the only guaranteed renewable source of Hydrogen is Electrolyzer, using the Hydrogen Generator as a dedicated power supply will not last long and will eventually lead to Oxygen overproduction, which can be hard to handle without expanding Duplicant count, which in turn will put strain on other systems, or processing it into rocket fuel, which is also energy-intensive, or venting Oxygen into space, which is ethically dubious, or doing such unorthodox things as Longhair Slickster ranching.
Thus the best use of a Hydrogen Generator in combination with an Electrolyzer is an oxygen production setup that requires very little external power input. And, once properly balanced (by limiting pumps/generator energy, and ensuing reliable supply of hydrogen to the generator), can produce some excess Hydrogen or power.
Water-fuel
The electrolytic pathway converts kilogram of water per second to around 280-740 Watts of power under the best circumstances (or even less with more than 2 constantly working pumps per electrolyzer and any filters).
An example of ideal circumstances is an electrolyzer room with one water pump, four electrolyzers and eight gas pumps. One pump for hydrogen, seven pumps for oxygen. This generates 448 g/s of hydrogen, which can run four hydrogen generators with slight excess. The setup consumes 2520 Watts (pump runs half the time) and 4 kg/s of water, and the hydrogen generators will produce 3200 W or 4800 W with Engie's Tune-Up. The excess hydrogen can be used to run a fifth generator intermittently. If this is done then best case with Engie's Tune-Up will be come out to approximately 740 Watts per kg of water. Without Engie's Tune-Up, best case becomes about 280 Watts per kilogram of water.
The same kilogram of water per second can also be converted into Crude Oil and Natural Gas, which can fuel Petroleum and Natural Gas Generators, where it amounts to ~1421 Watts of power (assuming two constantly running pumps, Oil Well and refinery). This setup also has a plenty of potential for further efficiency improvement.
Thus, for the purposes of energy production, it is more preferable to utilize all available Oil Wells before redirecting water to Hydrogen Generators.
Heat economy
Hydrogen Generators can be used to destroy heat wholesale, putting just 17 °C of excess heat into Hydrogen will be enough to counteract generator's heating, and everything beyond that is a bonus. It is not particularly powerful in that regards, burning 100 °C Hydrogen will destroy only 20 kDTU/s, but there is no problematic by-products either.
Trivia
Considering that the hydrogen generator does not produce any waste, consume any oxygen, and generates net energy gain from electrolyzing water in a SPOM, it can be reasonably inferred that it is some kind of fusion reactor.
Bugs
- Q3-336724: The Hydrogen generator will not allow hydrogen intake while disabled, however if hydrogen is already moving into a disabled generator, it will be destroyed. Do not connect hydrogen generators directly to automation, instead use Gas Shutoffs to limit their energy production.[confirmation?]
