How to Cool Your Regolith to Generate Steam Power

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Addenda: 1) Debris on a conveyor rail exchanges heat with the tile it is on AND the tile below it. So I think this could be made more efficient by serpentine-ing the rails through the insulated tiles as well as the metal tiles, because they can still exchange heat with the metal tiles below them.

[@Logistikon11]

My goodness. You're the first ONI instructional vid maker I've seen that explains his builds and why things are the way they are. What a relief.

[@impyre2513]

Gotta give credit where it's due, this is about as simple and straightforward as you can get for a system like this. Nice one.

[@impyre2513]

Here's the explanation for why creating temperature "stages" improves efficiency of thermal transfer systems: Most people understand this intuitively just by knowing how heat works, but it's not so easy to put into words. Let's start by imagining the most simple counterflow heat transfer system possible: two pipes running through a section of metal tiles 10 units long. The top pipe moves hot liquid from left to right, and the bottom pipe moves cool liquid from right to left. This means that the bottom liquid will come out hot at the left end, and the top liquid should come out cool at the right end. In order for this to work properly you absolutely need the rightmost tiles to be cold, and the leftmost tiles to be hot. In this example though, you only have a single stage, one giant metal brick. The left side of the metal tiles are hot, and heat will be transferred from left to right by the metal tiles themselves. This will have the effect of averaging the temperatures of your liquids, which is not what you want in a heat transfer system. In order to get maximum heat transfer from the top liquid to the bottom liquid, you must break up the metal tiles into sections, and insulate them from each other, thus preventing heat from "leaking" from the left to the right. If you had infinitely many such segments, you could achieve "perfect" efficiency in theory. In effect, the more "stages" or sections you have, the better your heat transfer will be.

[@Scott_Burton]

I like how you use regolith to make a power byproduct while cooling that is actually capable of being power positive, then explain how to add additional cooling by adding powered cooling that will make your regolith much cooler, without the massive power deficit that using only powered cooling alone would run into. 2 options, one power positive, one with low net power loss

[@stronkde]

KZbin: Video posted 1 minute ago. Me: Oh no, I'm late!

[@Arkaon666]

Realistically regolith only have 2 uses, feed voles in space or melting it, but great video as always

[@tonyadvanced6315]

It's true. That's all I can think of.

[@Arkaon666]

@@matthewbauerle7153 you have so much sand, why use something that is very hot

[@tonyadvanced6315]

@@matthewbauerle7153 True. That's a legit use. But I wouldn't cool 36,000kg per cycle for it.

[@johnw1544]

@@Arkaon666 I plan to use it to make clay with diffusers, at least in the short term. It's a good source of coal, and you need a LOT of sand if you want to farm polluted oxygen like that.

[@GazeboPelt]

Fantastic video, as always! Is there a reason the top aquatuner is on airflow tiles, but the bottom ones aren't?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yeah. The pipes are hard to route if the top one is sitting on the floor because the liquid vents get in the way. I used airflow tiles because it felt right for a room meant to have steam in it.

[@the_furf_of_july4652]

For the additional cooling, can you extend the AT cooling loop that’s handling the first set of turbines instead of making a new one? You’re going to be keeping that coolant at a very low temperature regardless, and insulate it from the steam room.

[@DanTormenT]

cool, i once used your metal volcano to cooling regollith works fine =]

[@johnw1544]

Question, doesnt steam escape the chamber through the airflow tiles below the tuner? You might address this in the video somewhere but I've already built it and is working great, just with the addendum of adding metal tiles behind the tuner instead, although i'm not exactly sure why you can't just place it on the floor, maybe you leak heat into the heatsink?

[@ZodiacWarscythe]

Couldnt you use the water released from the steam turbines to cool the steam turbines and use the aquatuner to cool the aluminum plates then you could theoretically cool it without the second cooling loop without lowering the water temp to the point it doesn't flash steam once reentering the steam room.

[@psteels]

If you had vacuum between the heat sinks you could get rid of the insulation, right?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

You're right.

[@impyre2513]

Yes, furthermore you should probably use insulated pipe between sections for maximum efficiency

[@tonyadvanced6315]

@@impyre2513 If you have insulated tiles there it helps the heat exchange a little to use radiant pipes (I haven't tested that in a while), it may be worth saving the refined metal by using regular pipes, and I can't think of any reason to use insulated. With a vacuum instead of insulation then any pipe works all the same.

[@impyre2513]

@@tonyadvanced6315 EDIT: apparently adjacent connected pipe sections don't transfer heat between them at all

[@tonyadvanced6315]

@@impyre2513 I read a thing that says they used to do that, but they changed it.

[@shadowkhan422]

Quick question. If you are builduing in a vacuum wont it be better to NOT build the insulation tiles between cooling layers ? Vacuum there is better ? (Unless Im missing something ofc).And if you make it vaccuum you can make a passage for the dupes in case of repairs (since no need to w8 for the building to finish so can easy make empty space 2 tiles high)

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yep. You are right.

[@mogadanez]

instead of putting insulation between, can put entire building to space/vacuum

[@Rockingorc]

you first showed s (or some) batteries in the build - forgotten it in the remake :D

[@tonyadvanced6315]

You're right. I was experimenting with it and left it in there when I started recording.

[@bonk2065]

Can’t u do what u did with ur metal volcano tamer and have the regality go through the steam then the steam turbine room

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yes, but you still need a total of 5-6 turbines and 3 tuners, so you basically get the same building sticking out the side of the build at the top instead of the bottom. Plus, you have to route 3 rails of regolith back up to the top and then down again, so you need 6 tiles-wide of rails on the side and three tiles of rails across the top in addition to filling the turbine room with rails. I'm not sure the hydrogen can absorb the heat fast enough to handle 3 continuous rails of regolith unless it's very cold, it might require super coolant.

[@firstnamelastname8447]

"let's keep it straight forward"

[@tonyadvanced6315]

I hope that's a good thing.

[@fishinawaterbottle]

This video seems incompatible with your tutorial on creating your space bunker door + miners + auto sweeper conveyer setup which involved cooling the regolith. Do you have an alternative suggested setup that IS compatible with this?

[@mo0man]

Speaking purely hypothetically, if you were the type of person who likes to dig up the entire map and store it in very neatly temperature controlled infinite storage areas, how graceful would this system take items of wildly varying temperatures?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Good question. Cold things would cool the steam so heat is wasted, and very cold things might break stuff by freezing pipes and such, and stuff that doesn't change temperature well might not work very well. But generally speaking it makes sense.

[@saymonantoneo9700]

Vou usar no meu mapa, obrigado

[@funkyradbomtrack]

Any probs with the blueprint mod or is it working fine on Linux now?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

It has always worked great for me.

[@michaelsotomayor5001]

So it's best to heat up the regolith and then cool it

[@kingjames4886]

why not just run it straight through metal tiles under steam turbines in a row?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

It doesn't work very well. If you do that and use tempshift plates to help get the heat into the steam then I think ithree rails of regolith and three turbines would cool it down to 160-170C. It IS a lot simpler though, so it's not a bad idea depending what your goals are.

[@MonologueMusicals]

360p club

[@tonyadvanced6315]

My screen says it's 1080p60

[@aznkayle]

@@tonyadvanced6315 if you're early enough to a video the quality is pretty bad. After a while (idk how long) the highest setting will be enabled.

[@ohmiohwa4199]

thank god ther are no fIrSt comments