[MOD 0.11.x] Steam 0.0.1

[starholme]

Introduces low and high pressure steam fluids. Also contains pumps to allow a circulating boiler setup with ease.

Specific heat of low and high pressure steam has been adjusted to near real-world values, with low pressure ~1.5x water, and high pressure ~4.25x water.
This means that each unit of water contains much more energy per degree, and has a higher max temperature.

Download: https://github.com/Starholme/factorio-S ... _0.0.1.zip

Additional ideas that fit the theme of this mod are welcome. I intend on keeping it very lightweight, and encouraging other mods to support these fluids.

See https://github.com/Starholme/factorio-Steam for source code.

See https://github.com/Starholme/factorio-Steam/wiki for the wiki.

Circulating boiler example:

Fullsize Image:http://imgur.com/vFuzl85
In the above picture you can see the highlighted High Pressure Feedwater Pump is maintaining a level of 8.8 in the attached pipe. This ensures that the small pump, just one tile down and to the right, is able to circulate the fluid through the row of boilers, and back to the storage tank. The steam engines are best fed off the boilers, as they will receive the hottest liquid. The boilers before the High Pressure Feedwater Pump act as a sort of preheat. The temperature is preserved when going through the pump.

[Devildog]

Nice, Trying it.

Have any photos?

[YuokiTani]

You need to fix the fluids - pressure_to_speed, and maybe flow_to_energy - because steam don't need a pump.

i think another problem come from the game itself - because you need to transfer the MJ into the fluid and after some piping you transfer the MJ back. as a formel i would say you can stroke the transport-medium because it could be any fluid. in your scenario you can use the steam to storeage MJ, maybe it's cheaper/better handling as an accumulator.
if you have planed other use for steam or transfer mechanic then it's a great.

[starholme]

You need to fix the fluids - pressure_to_speed, and maybe flow_to_energy - because steam don't need a pump.

i think another problem come from the game itself - because you need to transfer the MJ into the fluid and after some piping you transfer the MJ back. as a formel i would say you can stroke the transport-medium because it could be any fluid. in your scenario you can use the steam to storeage MJ, maybe it's cheaper/better handling as an accumulator.
if you have planed other use for steam or transfer mechanic then it's a great.

My explanation was a little poor in the first post. I've added a example image on using the new pumps, but essentially we need some sort of entity to convert the liquid type from water to steam. The additional bonus is that it maintains a level in the output pipes that allows a vanilla small pump to circulate the liquid through boilers and storage.

Honestly, I agree the transport medium doesn't matter. I just feel that the steam power in the game is targeted to the early game, and that once you have researched things like steel, you should be able to build more efficient/higher output steam equipment.

[ssilk]

We need also a turbine, which works like the steam engine but the steam doesn't go into the air, it can be reused as preheated medium.

There are this 4 stages:

- Water
- overheated water (up to 1000 degrees, should depend on boiler type and not the medium)
- dry steam (edit: also known as saturated steam!)
- wet steam

And this are the conversions:

Water from lake or condenser
V - by pressure pump, needs to be 100 degrees, pump has inbuilt boiler to guarantee that
Overheated water (can be heated from 100 to 1000 degrees by more (pressured) boilers)
V - by injector, needs overheated and normal water, outputs dry steam and overflow steam
Dry steam (is always a 100 degrees medium)
V - by turbine, efficiency depends on pressure between dry and wet steam
Wet steam (always a 100 degrees medium)
V - by condenser, can be cooled to reduce pressure
Water (at 35 degrees, the circle repeats, but needs less energy, cause this water or parts can be used to cool the condenser)

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ra ... layout.png
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=5&t=1515
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injector#F ... _injectors

[starholme]

We need also a turbine, which works like the steam engine but the steam doesn't go into the air, it can be reused as preheated medium.

There are this 4 stages:

- Water
- overheated water (up to 400 degrees)
- dry steam
- wet steam

And this are the conversions:

Water from lake or condenser
V - by pressure pump, needs to be 100 degrees, pump has inbuilt boiler to guarantee that
Overheated water (can be heated from 100 to 400 degrees by more (pressured) boilers)
V - by injector, needs overheated and normal water, outputs dry steam and overflow steam
Dry steam (is always a 100 degrees medium)
V - by turbine, efficiency depends on pressure between dry and wet steam
Wet steam (always a 100 degrees medium)
V - by condenser, can be cooled to reduce pressure
Water (at 35 degrees, the circle repeats, but needs less energy, cause this water or parts can be used to cool the condenser)

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ra ... layout.png
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=5&t=1515
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injector#F ... _injectors

Hey Ssilk,
Has nobody else really given this a good try yet through mods? I'm willing to give it a try, but don't want to reinvent the wheel. And if I build it, it's got to be somewhat modular, so other mods can reuse most of the system, maybe just implementing their own boilers.

[ssilk]

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm quite sure, nobody else has tried it.

For me this is the base tech to all other energy generating mods, like nuclear or fusion, or solar ovens, or ... Cause you need a water circulation in more or less this 4 steps.

Wait, there are more discussions, about the problems with the water for power generating:

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3255
About that they use destilled water protect the turbine.

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=2058
About pump power usage.

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=6&t=177
Devs about steam. Very old, but since now the devs fulfilled always their promises.

I like this link: http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph14d/gasgesetz.htm
Cause it helps to understand, what happens with steam.

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... eam#p11006
And the following posts. More about using steam and overheating.


So, yes, it would be a cool idea, all needed elements are above. But be aware, that the devs might redo this whole stuff at some point in the next year and then it is there by default. But I'm sure, you can influence their work with yours.


PS: I added in my first post that the dry steam is also called saturated steam, and I rise the max temp for overheated water to 1000 degrees. The point would be then, that not all heat-sources can heat it that much, burners only up to 500, nuclear power to much more. I think this kind of modding is currently not possible, cause a burner will heat always to the max temp of the medium and not his max temp.

[starholme]

Ok. I'm willing to lay out something in regards to more realistic steam generation.
I'd very much like to use script interfaces extensively, but I havn't used them yet. It'll take some practice I think.

Feedwater max temp 100, 1kj/degree
Feedwater make up pump - script as small pump - keeps a reasonable water level in your feedwater tank
Water purifier of some sort - script as assembler - turns lake water into feed water. Maybe a distiller of some sort.

mixed phase steam max temp, 185(about 150psi steam in real life), 4.5kj/degree
Feedwater injector - script as small pump - converts feedwater to mixed phase steam to be fed to the boilers
Boiler the boiler increases the mixed phase steam temperature

Saturated Steam, max temp 500, ?kj/degree
Steam separator - script as assembler, script needs to check input fluid box amount and temp, split into output boxes by temp. Needs to convert on a curve to encourage high input temps - Splits off a portion of the mixed phase steam as saturated steam. The remaining mixed phase steam is 'cooler', and needs to go through boilers again.

Boilers again, increase the steam temperature more
Another steam separator, this time splitting a portion of the saturated steam into dry steam. The remaining saturated steam becomes feedwater, goes back to the feedwater tank.

Dry steam max 500c, same kj/degree as saturated?
This steam is passed through a turbine - script as assembler? Can assemblers have negative energy? I need to research this.
Turbine converts dry steam to condensing steam, producing electricity

Condenser
Takes in condensing steam, produces feedwater. Should use an 'assembler' type for this, allowing anyone to add various cooling towers/whatever to condense the steam. Probably doesn't need to be a script interface, but I should provide an example entity for other modders

This feedwater is returned to the feedwater tank.

So, water->feedwater->mixed phase steam->saturated steam->dry steam->condensing steam->feedwater.
Balancing:
* Encourage fully heating each stage, by steam separator giving better return at high temp inputs.
* output = input units * input temp/max temp.