Geothermal Power Plant

Geothermal Power Plant
Version Introduced	The Frosty Planet Pack DLC Update
Number of POIs	4
Rewards
1	Shiny Coprolite

Geothermal Heat Pump
Uses Heat from the planet's core to dramatically increase the temperature of Liquid inputs. Materials will be emitted at connected Geo Vents.
What comes out depends very much on the initial temperature of what goes in.
Dimensions	7×8 tiles
Decor	-20 (5 tile radius)

Geo Vent
Emits high-temperature materials recieved from the Geothermal Heat Pump.
Geo vents must finish their current emission before accepting new materials.
Dimensions	3×4 tiles
Decor	-20 (5 tile radius)

The Geothermal Power Plant is a directive found exclusively on Ceres. The power plant is a collection of interactive POIs buried deep inside Ceres similar to the Story Trait system. Unlike story traits, they are guaranteed to spawn, cannot be changed through map generation settings, and cannot be demolished. Once activated, the power plant can be used to generate copious amounts of power, or create rare resources that would otherwise require rocketry. Completing the story trait maximizes the power plant's throughput.

Description

The Geothermal Power Plant generates 4 points of interest: a Geothermal Heat Pump and three Geo Vents.

Progress

When initially discovered, all points of interests are inactive.

Activation

1200 kg of Steel is needed to repair the Geothermal Heat Pump. Once repaired, three liquid inputs become accessible for intake. A duplicant is also required to manually reconnect a Geo Vent to a Geothermal Heat Pump. This is considered a Toggling errand and does not require special skills. After activation, the Geothermal Heat Pump is ready to use although will not operate at maximum throughput unless all three Geo Vent are connected.

Completion

One of the Geo Vents is blocked by a Bammoth patty that has fossilized into lead. To clear the blocked Geo Vent, operate the heat pump (requires inputting 12000 kg of any liquid) and ensure that the input content temperature as monitored by the heat pump is at least 178.85°C. Note the in-game tooltip confusingly states clearing the blockage requires "piping in liquids hot enough to melt lead" - this is misleading as it appears to refer to the input content temperature, but is actually the output temperature that must be hot enough to melt lead. Completing this task unlocks the Full Steam Ahead achievement and grants the Shiny Coprolite Keepsake as a reward.

Mechanics

After inputting 12000 kg of liquid, the pump distributes 11040 kg (92%) of the liquid to all connected Geo Vents. The remaining 960 kg (8%) is deleted. The amount distributed to each vent is roughly the same, but not identical.

Materials emits from the vents at 15 kg/s, but +150°C hotter from the monitored input content temperature up to a maximum of 1376.85°C. If the input content temperature was over 1376.85°C, then it has the opposite effect and emit materials 150°C cooler down to a minimum of 1376.85°C. The input content temperature is monitored as a weighted average across all inputs rather than on a per-element basis. That is, inputting a packet at 350°C of Crude Oil with a final input content temperature of 100° C will still output 250° C for crude oil rather than 500° C. Moreover, specific heat capacity is accounted for in the input content temperature, so, for example, inputting equal amounts of 1900°C Molten Glass (SHC of 0.2) and 20°C Water (SHC of 4.179) will result in a final input content temperature of 105°C, not 960°C, because of the higher heat capacity of the cool water.

In addition, impurities are emitted from the Geo Vent at the same temperature of the emitted material. What comes out very much depends on the input content temperature.

Impurities Table

Material	Min. Input Temperature Threshold (°C)	Total Mass (kg)	Input Temperature Phase Transitions (°C)	Emitted Element	Element Mass
Igneous Rock	-273.15 °C / -459.67 °F	50	-273.15 ↔ 1559.85°C	Igneous Rock	50
			1559.85 ↔ 2506.85°C	Magma	50
			2506.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Rock Gas	50
Granite	-273.15 °C / -459.67 °F	50	-273.15 ↔ 518.85°C	Granite	50
			518.85 ↔ 1559.85°C	Igneous Rock	50
			1559.85 ↔ 2506.85°C	Magma	50
			2506.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Rock Gas	50
Obsidian	-273.15 °C / -459.67 °F	50	-273.15 ↔ 2876.85°C	Obsidian	50
			2876.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Rock Gas	50
Salt Water	-273.15 °C / -459.67 °F	320	-273.15 ↔ -172.5°C	Brine Ice	73.6
				Ice	246.4
			-172.5 ↔ -157.5°C	Brine	73.6
				Ice	246.4
			-157.5 ↔ -50.31°C	Salt Water	320
			-50.31 ↔ 649.85°C	Salt	22.4
				Steam	297.6
			649.85 ↔ 1614.85°C	Molten Salt	22.4
				Steam	297.6
			1614.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Salt Gas	22.4
				Steam	297.6
Polluted Water	-273.15 °C / -459.67 °F	400	-273.15 ↔ -170.65°C	Polluted Ice	400
			-170.65 ↔ -30.65°C	Polluted Water	400
			-30.65 ↔ 176.85°C	Dirt	4
				Steam	396
			176.85 ↔ 1862.85°C	Sand	4
				Steam	396
			1862.85 ↔ 2506.85°C	Molten Glass	4
				Steam	396
			2506.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Rock Gas	4
				Steam	396
Rust	56.85 °C / 134.33 °F	125	56.85 ↔ 1684.85°C	Rust	125
			1684.85 ↔ 2899.85°C	Liquid Iron	125
			2899.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Iron	125
Molten Lead	266.85 °C / 512.33 °F	65	266.85 ↔ 1899°C	Molten Lead	65
			1899 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Lead	65
Gas Sulfur	426.85 °C / 800.33 °F	30	426.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Sulfur	30
Sour Gas	526.85 °C / 980.33 °F	200	526.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Sour Gas	200
Iron Ore	576.85 °C / 1070.33 °F	50	576.85 ↔ 1684.85°C	Iron Ore	50
			1684.85 ↔ 2899.85°C	Liquid Iron	50
			2899.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Iron	50
Molten Aluminum	926.85 °C / 1700.33 °F	100	926.85 ↔ 2620°C	Molten Aluminum	100
			2620 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Aluminum	100
Liquid Copper	1026.85 °C / 1880.33 °F	100	1026.85 ↔ 2710.85°C	Liquid Copper	100
			2710.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Copper	100
Liquid Gold	1126.85 °C / 2060.33 °F	100	1126.85 ↔ 3005.85°C	Liquid Gold	100
			3005.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Gold	100
Magma	1526.85 °C / 2780.33 °F	75	1526.85 ↔ 2506.85°C	Magma	75
			2506.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Rock Gas	75
Hydrogen	1526.85 °C / 2780.33 °F	50	1526.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Hydrogen	50
Liquid Iron	1626.85 °C / 2960.33 °F	250	1626.85 ↔ 2899.85°C	Liquid Iron	250
			2899.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Iron	250
Wolframite	1726.85 °C / 3140.33 °F	275	1726.85 ↔ 3076.85°C	Wolframite	275
			3076.85 ↔ 3571.85°C	Tungsten	275
			3571.85 ↔ 6079.85°C	Liquid Tungsten	275
			6079.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Tungsten	275
Fullerene	2226.85 °C / 4040.33 °F	3	2226.85 ↔ 4076.85°C	Fullerene	3
			4076.85 ↔ 4976.85°C	Liquid Carbon	3
			4976.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Carbon	3
Niobium	2226.85 °C / 4040.33 °F	5	2226.85 ↔ 2626.85°C	Niobium	5
			2626.85 ↔ 4893.85°C	Liquid Niobium	5
			4893.85 ↔ 9726.85°C	Gas Niobium	5

All materials within the specified temperature range will be emitted and does not change by connecting more Geo Vents. The output material emits as if it has already phase changed; that is, 320kg of 200°C Salt Water will actually emit as 22.4kg of 200°C Salt and 297.6kg of Steam (See element emission column in the table above for a comprehensive list). Solids are emitted as mini-comets that do no damage while gases and liquids output around the vent as beads (not as droplets).

Heat pump uptime

Although the amount of impurities is fixed, connecting additional Geo Vents to the heat pump may still be a good idea. A heat pump intakes up to 30kg/s of liquid but a single vent can only emit 15kg/s, so about 50% of the heat pump's maximum throughput is lost waiting if only one Geo Vent is connected. Two vents almost matches the intake of the heat pump, but as the material isn't identically distributed about 5% throughput is still lost waiting for the Geo Vent(s) to clear. All three vents is more than enough to match the intake of the heat pump, although the small throughput bonus may not merit the complexity of handling an additional vent.

Power generation

The heat pump can be used for power as it increases the input content by 150°C. Inputting 12000kg of 95°C Water (the return temperature of Steam Turbine's water) will output: 11040 + 297.6 (Salt Water → Steam) + 396 (Polluted Water → Steam) kg of 245°C steam, or 11733.6 kg of Steam (requiring 266.4kg of Steam to be added in order to sustain pump usage). In addition, the vent will emit 22.4kg of Salt , 4kg of Dirt , 50kg of Igneous Rock , 50kg of Granite , 50kg of Obsidian , and 125kg of Rust . Each operation produces (245 - 95) × ( 11733.6 × 4.179 + 22.4 × 0.7 + 4 × 1.48 + 50 × 1 + 50 × 0.79 + 50 × 0.2 + 125 × 0.449 ), or 7,381,790.91 kDTU of usable heat for steam turbines. If each operation takes 416 seconds (400 seconds of 30kg/s intake and a 16 second pump animation), this produces at most 17745 kDTU/s, or 17189W if optimally harvested through a Steam Turbine.

It may be tempting to use esoteric materials like Super Coolant or Nuclear Waste , which benefits from high specific capacity and a high evaporation point. Although this produces more power than using water, it is challenging to upkeep with the lost material on each operation, and it poses additional problems when trying to reclaim the materials from the Geo Vents.

Creating rare materials

The list of impurities features several novel elements that would otherwise be impossible to attain without rocketry, such as

• Granite
• Obsidian
• Rust
• Lead
• Wolframite

In addition, it allows access to the space materials Fullerene and Niobium albeit in very small quantities. If 2226.85°C liquid is fed into the heat pump, output material will be at 2076.85°C. The following materials are emitted, sorted by phase and molecular mass:

• 50kg Hydrogen
• 693.6kg Steam
• 200kg Sour Gas
• 30kg Gas Sulfur
• 22.4kg Salt Gas
• 65kg Gas Lead
• 175kg Magma
• 4kg Molten Glass
• 100kg Molten Aluminum
• 500kg Liquid Iron
• 100kg Liquid Copper
• 100kg Liquid Gold
• 50kg Obsidian
• 275kg Wolframite
• 3kg Fullerene
• 5kg Niobium

This is in total 2298kg of impurities, or 954kg of liquid impurities. If all liquid impurities are recycled, 6kg of additional liquid is needed sustain pump usage.

Heating 12000kg of a low specific heat capacity material such as Liquid Gold (SHC 0.1291) by 150°C to sustain pump usage would require 232,380 kDTU of heat, which is just under the heat created by refining 2.5 batches of Steel in a Metal Refinery. However, assuming each operation of the heat pump takes 416 seconds, this would require approximately 2.3 kg/s of outside material to sustain pump usage, which would require roughly 10 gold volcanos to sustain and so would be very expensive. Molten Glass with its low specific heat capacity of 0.2 may also be a good contender as it can be made in a self-sustaining loop via Polluted Dirt .

Alternatively, Magma could be used as the input material. Geotuning a Geyser 4 times would gives 1.925 - 2.245 kg/s (50% chance of a random volcano falling within this range) of magma at 2326.85°C, close to the approximately 2.3 kg/s of outside material needed to sustain pump usage. Mixing this with the 2076.85°C output magma in a 8:92 ratio (to recoup heat pump loss) gives 2096.85°C magma. Heating 12000kg of magma by the remaining 130°C would require 1,560,000 kDTU of heat, which would require approximately 16.67 batches of Steel in a Metal Refinery. This is likely unsustainable as it would require approximately 2.8 kg/s of iron. Instead, if volcano output is used directly, over 416 seconds, the equivalent of about 8780 W of steam power is lost (3860 W to magma cooling, 4920 W to magma loss assuming loss of 125°C Steam Turbine output).

Finally, if liquid impurities are recycled, 12000kg of a 4:100:100:100:175:500 ratio Molten Glass , Molten Aluminum , Liquid Copper , Liquid Gold , Magma , Liquid Iron mixture would have an average specific heat capacity of (4 × 0.2 + 0.91 × 100 + 100 × 0.386 + 100 × 0.1291 + 175 × 1 + 500 × 0.449) ÷ 954 = 0.569. Heating this by 150°C requires 1,024,170 kDTU of heat.