Heat exchanger

Heat exchanger

Edit

Recipe
3 + 100 + 10 + 10 → 1
Total raw
8 + 100 + 10 + 10
Map color
Fluid storage volume	Input: 200 Output: 200
Health	200 260 320 380 500
Resistances	Explosion: 0/30% Fire: 0/90% Impact: 0/30%
Stack size	50
Dimensions	2×3
Energy consumption	10 13 16 19 25 MW (heat)
Heat output	103/s 134/s 165/s 196/s 258/s steam
Maximum temperature	1000 °C
Fluid consumption	10.3/s 13.4/s 16.5/s 19.6/s 25.8/s water
Mining time	0.1
Prototype type	boiler
Internal name	heat-exchanger
Required technologies
Produced by

The heat exchanger takes heat from heat pipe or nuclear reactor heat pipe connections and transfers it to water to produce steam.

Heat exchangers produce ~103 steam every second with a temperature of 500°C.

They must heat up to 500°C before they produce steam, from a starting temperature of 15°C. Like a boiler they have two pipe connections on opposite short ends for water, and an output pipe for steam. Opposite the steam output, three heat pipe connections may be used to supply heat from a nuclear reactor.

Calculating steam production rate

The steam production rate is not shown in the game toolboxes, however a heat exchanger is shown to consume 10MW. Because 200J (joules - a unit of energy) heats 1 unit of water 1 degree in the game, and that water is heated from 15°C to 500°C, a difference of 485 degrees, producing 1 unit of 500°C steam consumes 97000J, or 97kJ. (the heat of vaporization is ignored) A watt is the amount of energy transfered per unit of time, a joule every second. As a heat exchanger consumes 10 megawatts, 10000000 joules every second, or 10000kJ/s. Dividing this by the 97kJ/steam, the rate of steam production is found. 10000kJ/s / 97kJ/steam = 103.092783505 steam/s

Heat capacity

A heat exchanger connected to a working nuclear reactor may increase in temperature to the reactors maximum temperature of 1000°C. Heat exchangers have a heat capacity of 1 MJ/°C. They require 485MJ of energy to warm up from 15°C to 500°C when initially placed. Because they do not produce steam below 500°C, they, and usually the connected reactors, will not cool below this temperature. If there are insufficient heat exchangers for the power generated by the connected reactors, or insufficient or stopped water supply to the heat exchanger it will buffer up to 500MJ of heat energy as its temperature raises above 500°C. This energy can only be used to produce steam, and under no circumstances will the temperature of the steam produced be above 500°C.

Effects on other machines

• Steam engines are not recommended, as they consume full units of 500°C steam to only produce 30kJ/steam (wasting 69%).
• The steam produced my be pumped and may also be stored in storage tanks.
• It is not recommended to use steam produced by heat exchangers for coal liquefaction over boilers as it currently wastes energy without additional benefit, and coal is likely available.

Trivia

Thermal energy, or heat, is conveniently transported in fluids and gases. In many reactor designs heat is transfered outside the reactor vessel and used to heat water elsewhere. Heat pipes represent the medium to transfer this heat. Heat exchangers represent the use of this heat to create steam.

History

• 0.15.0:
  • Introduced
  • Doubled the heat capacity of water from 0.1kJ per degree per liter to 0.2kJ

See also

• Power production
• Steam
• Heat pipe