Chemfuel powered generator

The chemfuel powered generator produces power from chemfuel. The generator is an exact analog to the wood-fired generator, only the type of fuel is different.

Acquisition[edit]

Chemfuel powered generators can be constructed once the Electricity research project has been completed. Each requires 100 Steel, 3 Components, 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder, and a construction skill of 6.

Once constructed, they cannot be re-installed; they can only be deconstructed.

Summary[edit]

The chemfuel powered generator consumes 4.5 chemfuel per day and generates a constant 1000W as long as it is switched on and fueled. It can hold up to 30 fuel at a time, for a maximum run time of 6.66 days. Fuel consumption is not dependent on how much power is actually drawn. Fuel is delivered to the generator by haulers or lifters. It can be switched off; in the off state it will neither consume fuel nor produce power.

Generators are temporarily disabled by sources of EMP, with downtime scaling to the EMP damage dealt. During this time, it will not generate any power. Unlike mechanoids, generators do not adapt to EMP and thus can be continuously restunned.

Source	Stun Duration
Awful EMP launcher	1,350 ticks (22.5 secs)
EMP Grenades, Poor/Norm/Good/Exc EMP launcher	1,500 ticks (25 secs)
Masterwork EMP launcher	1,875 ticks (31.25 secs)
Legendary EMP launcher	2,250 ticks (37.5 secs)

Light & heat[edit]

It outputs light in a 6 tile radius, with the nearest 3.485 tiles being 50% light level and considered lit. Note that the light source is centered at the bottom-left tile of the generator, rather than the "true" center of the generator.

It heats at a rate of 6 heat per second^{[Exact mechanic unclear]}. Unlike many other heat sources, it does not appear to have a maximum temperature and will continue to heat up rooms indefinitely.^{[Confirmation needed]}.

Explosion[edit]

If it is damaged below one third of its hitpoints, or 100 HP, it has a 70% chance to explode. The generator will spark and emit a hissing sound shortly before exploding between 70 ticks (1.17 secs) and 150 ticks (2.5 secs) later. The explosion deals 10 Flame damage in a radius around itself that depends on the quantity of fuel in the generator. At 0 fuel, the explosion has a radius of 0 and only destroys the generator, and expanding this radius proportional to the square root of the fuel times 0.95 up to a maximum radius of 5.34 tiles when fully fueled. This explosion leaves Chemfuel puddles which will then ignite and burn.

Analysis[edit]

Chemfuel generators are compact, can be placed anywhere, and offer a consistent source of power, making it one of the easiest generators to use. Most other power sources scale much worse; they are either inconsistent, have a location requirement, or take up lots of space. With chemfuel generators, you can easily place as many as you want, so long as you can fuel them.

However, these generators require upkeep, both to create the chemfuel, and to haul the fuel to the generator. The exact amount of work depends on which source of chemfuel is used - infinite chemreactors are very limited, but require no work to create. Many colonies will have to research Biofuel refining to actually make some.

In general, any source of chemfuel is less work than what a wood-fired generator would take. The workload is reasonably low, so using chemfuel does not bring excessive burden to a colony.

Fuel economy[edit]

Using wood for fuel[edit]

With a biofuel refinery, chemfuel generators consume 9 wood of chemfuel per day, less than a wood-fired generator's 22 per day. Both generators produce the same amount of power. Converting wood to chemfuel takes work, but harvesting wild trees takes longer when considering the time to walk and haul. Note that the refinery itself requires 170 W of power, but you only need 1 refinery for many generators. In specific:

Converting wood to chemfuel takes 2,000 ticks (33.33 secs) of work for 7.78 days of fuel, or 257 ticks (4.28 secs) for 1 day of fuel.
Just harvesting the wood depends on biome, growth of the tree, and Plants skill.
- With a Plants skill of 8, it would take a ballpark of 260 ticks (4.33 secs) of work to harvest 9 wood for a fully grown, non-cactus tree. Once converted, this is a total of 517 ticks (8.62 secs) of work to fuel a chemfuel generator for one day
- For reference, it would take the same pawn a ballpark of 650 ticks (10.83 secs) of work to harvest 22 wood, making the wood-fired generator notably less work efficient.
When considering tree cutting, note that a wood-fired generator also requires you to cut more trees total. This requires more hauling time as well greater travel time as local areas are deforested. On some maps, regrowth may also be outstripped by consumption.

If growing your own fuel is required, wood is a terrible choice. Sowing a single tree takes 4,000 ticks (1.11 mins) of work, which dramatically increases the total work required. Fibercorn is less efficient than regular crops as well. However, compared to their wood-fired variants, chemfuel generators have the added advantage of being able to use raw food and, as shown below, this can be much more efficient.

Raw food refining[edit]

When refining raw food, there are two primary sources. Refining waste meat, such as human, insect and twisted meat, or growing and refining crop plants.

Corn is ideal to grow to feed chemfuel generators, with 8.6 tiles of corn plant in 100% fertility soil needed for each generator. Note that this assumes 100% harvest efficiency and doesn't account for low-skill colonists botching harvests - as harvest efficiency decreases at higher difficulties and at low plants skill, the number of tiles that must be dedicated to chemfuel production will increase in direct proportion.

In terms of work efficiency:

A chemfuel generator requires 4.5 chemfuel per day, or 0.45 nutrition per day.
On average with a Plants skill of 8, sowing and harvesting 0.45 nutrition worth of corn requires approximately 151 ticks (2.52 secs) of work.
Converting corn to chemfuel takes 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work for 7.78 days of fuel, or 321 ticks (5.35 secs) for 1 day of fuel.
Once converted, this is a total of 472 ticks (7.87 secs) of work to fuel a chemfuel generator for one day

By way of comparison, rice requires much more work:

On average with a Plants skill of 8, sowing and harvesting 0.45 nutrition worth of rice requires approximately 555 ticks (9.25 secs) of work.
All other requirements are the same and so, once converted, this is a total of 876 ticks (14.6 secs) of work to fuel a chemfuel generator for one day

Boomalopes[edit]

A boomalope produces, at most, 11 chemfuel per day. This takes 400 ticks (6.67 secs) of work before modifiers. This is enough to fuel ~2.44 generators, which in practice means 2 generators per day.

In theory, a herd of 9 boomalope can fuel 22 generators indefinitely. However, milking is not an instant process, so it is difficult to reach that theoretical limit in practice. Additionally, space for a pen and grazing, or growing more crops, are required to maintain fuel production.

Infinite chemreactor[edit]

The Infinite chemreactor is a world quest item that generates 75 chemfuel every ten days (effectively 7.5 chemfuel per day) at a cost of 300 watts and no work. This is more than enough to power a single chemfuel powered generator, providing a net +700 watts of power, while leaving 30 chemfuel after a 10 day cycle (an average of 3 excess/day). 3 infinite chemreactors are exactly enough to power 5 chemfuel generators, providing an excess of 4,100 watts of power (5,000w -900w).

Assuming a small buffer of chemfuel to start, this is easily attainable, because the supply side is reliable, and refueling can be done well in advance.

Hydroponics[edit]

Chemfuel generators together with hydroponics greenhouses and biofuel refineries produce a significant net energy profit, if the colonist workforce is available to run the setup. The (simplified) conversion chain is

Power (for greenhouse) → food (for refinery) → chemfuel (for generator) → power

A lot of excess power is generated at the end of the chain.

A single hydroponics basin can produce ~0.61 raw nutrition per day (growing rice, and assuming a perfect grow operation). This converts into ~6.1 chemfuel per day at a biofuel refinery. Therefore, the produce from a single basin fuels about 1.3 chemfuel generators. This is not attainable in practice, but will serve as a guideline. Assuming the full area of a sun lamp is occupied by 24 hydroponics basins in the optimal configuration and accounting for the basin's share of the sunlamps power consumption, each individual basin effectively consumes 136W of power on average, or 191W peak. This results in a theoretical net gain in energy of about 1211W on average or 1156W peak per dedicated hydroponics basin. While, the power draw of the refinery is not taken into account, it can be micro-managed if chemfuel is produced in batches, and will not play a big role in the overall economy.

With adequate batteries to handle the day-night cycle of sun lamps, 3.3 generators are needed to power a full hydroponics setup, which will require ~14.7 chemfuel per day, or about 2.4 hydroponics basins dedicated to producing rice to turn into chemfuel. This means that with 4 generators, you can grow plants in 21 of the 24 hydroponics basins for free, with an average of 736W of power spare. Note that this assumes 100% harvest efficiency and doesn't account for low-skill colonists botching harvests - as harvest efficiency decreases at higher difficulties and at low plants skill, the number of basins that must be dedicated to chemfuel production will increase in direct proportion.

Version history[edit]

0.18.1722 - Added.
1.1.0 - Refueling is now toggleable.

Architect

Power: Power conduit (Hidden, Waterproof) • Power switch • Wood-fired generator • Chemfuel powered generator • Wind turbine
(research): Battery • Geothermal generator • Solar generator • Watermill generator • Toxifier generator • Bioferrite generator • Gravcore power cell
(uncraftable): Vanometric power cell • Unstable power cell
Related: Ship reactor • Electroharvester