Steam Recycling for isolated Power Plants
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 7:20 am
Hello everyone,
Let me just preface this with:
1) I absolutely love the game.
2) I am a newbie to the game, with only 50 hours in-game, and even less in the forum.
3) This suggestion assumes we will be able to transport water in either barrels or tank wagons.
TL:DR
Instead of destroying all the water used, steam engines could output some % of the input steam as cold water. Recovered water could then be reheated to run the steam engine again. This would allow players to maintain steam power plants in locations were piped water supply is impractical.
WHAT:
When heated water runs through a steam engine, 100% of the water used is released to the atmosphere. I propose that with the correct research, steam engines would upgrade to output a percentage of the used water into an output line. This cold water could then be pumped back to the boilers, reheated and reused.
WHY:
If an outpost is too far from a water source to pipe in water, the only option for power is solar panels and accumulators. Currently this works, but the power density is very low, and is generally inadequate for lasers/assembly machines. I think is should be reasonable for players to create steam plants that are supplied water via barrels/train. With the current game mechanics(+water transport), a 1.5 MW plant requires an entire cargo wagon of water barrels per day. Being able to recycle the water would make the power plant more efficient, and reduce the logistic strain to the player, while adding complexity to the power plant layout.
Example:
Here is an example steam recycling power plant I set up. I used a chemical plant instead of a steam engine to make the input/output lines clearer, and oil instead of water since water cannot be filled into barrels yet. The assembler loads water into the storage tank, which flows from the tank to the boilers and into the steam engine's(chemical plant) input. The recycled water exits the steam engine and returns to the storage tank, with the assembler replacing the lost fluid.
Let me just preface this with:
1) I absolutely love the game.
2) I am a newbie to the game, with only 50 hours in-game, and even less in the forum.
3) This suggestion assumes we will be able to transport water in either barrels or tank wagons.
TL:DR
Instead of destroying all the water used, steam engines could output some % of the input steam as cold water. Recovered water could then be reheated to run the steam engine again. This would allow players to maintain steam power plants in locations were piped water supply is impractical.
WHAT:
When heated water runs through a steam engine, 100% of the water used is released to the atmosphere. I propose that with the correct research, steam engines would upgrade to output a percentage of the used water into an output line. This cold water could then be pumped back to the boilers, reheated and reused.
WHY:
If an outpost is too far from a water source to pipe in water, the only option for power is solar panels and accumulators. Currently this works, but the power density is very low, and is generally inadequate for lasers/assembly machines. I think is should be reasonable for players to create steam plants that are supplied water via barrels/train. With the current game mechanics(+water transport), a 1.5 MW plant requires an entire cargo wagon of water barrels per day. Being able to recycle the water would make the power plant more efficient, and reduce the logistic strain to the player, while adding complexity to the power plant layout.
Example:
Here is an example steam recycling power plant I set up. I used a chemical plant instead of a steam engine to make the input/output lines clearer, and oil instead of water since water cannot be filled into barrels yet. The assembler loads water into the storage tank, which flows from the tank to the boilers and into the steam engine's(chemical plant) input. The recycled water exits the steam engine and returns to the storage tank, with the assembler replacing the lost fluid.
