Natural Gas Generator

The Natural Gas Generator is a mid- to late-game power building that converts Natural Gas into electricity without requiring maintenance. It is a strong and reliable power source when a steady supply of gas is available, especially when paired with a Natural Gas Geyser, Oil Refinery, Fertilizer Synthesizer, or other production chain that can feed it continuously.

Because it emits polluted water and carbon dioxide, it is usually best to place the generator above a waste reservoir or in a setup that can contain and route its byproducts. A mesh tile placed under the polluted water خروج point is enough to catch the leak cleanly; the polluted water is emitted on the third tile from the left, or the second tile from the right, of the building footprint. The carbon dioxide output can also be managed more easily if the generator is placed near existing gas handling infrastructure, since keeping the pipes short reduces the amount of gas that needs to be moved and makes it easier to separate the heavier carbon dioxide.

The building is inherently net heat-producing. Its output/input heat capacity ratio is 1.5, so even when the incoming Natural Gas is relatively cool, the generator still adds heat to the base. To reduce this effect, it is best to keep the fuel temperature as close as possible to 40 °C, since the polluted water output has a minimum temperature of 40 °C and the carbon dioxide output has a minimum temperature of 110 °C. Colder fuel increases the total heat added at a higher rate, so warming the gas slightly can be preferable to feeding it very cold.

• One Oil Refinery or nine Fertilizer Synthesizers can produce enough Natural Gas for one generator.
• One Gas Pump can supply 500 g/s of Natural Gas, which is enough for 5.55 generators.
• One gas pipeline can feed 11 generators, with one additional generator supported for every 9 pipelines.
• 44 Natural Gas Generators will saturate a carbon dioxide waste pipeline.

The generator also has a useful interaction with steam power. Since it does not release carbon dioxide directly into the surrounding environment, a steel Natural Gas Generator can be built inside a steam-filled room and have its heat fed to a Steam Turbine. At around 150 °C, matching the output of a Natural Gas Geyser, a generator produces about 25.6 kDTU/s of net heat, of which roughly 2.86 kDTU/s is carried by the carbon dioxide pipe and the remainder can be harvested by the turbine. A single self-cooling Steam Turbine can handle the heat from about 12 generators and add around 300 W of power, while also helping with temperature control.

Its polluted water output is also extremely convenient in steam setups: the small amount produced by each generator is boiled immediately on exit, turning it fully into steam and effectively making the building as water-efficient as a Water Sieve without consuming power or filtration medium. That steam can then be recovered as clean water through the turbine output. In this kind of design, the output water should not be fed back into the steam chamber by default, since doing so can cool the chamber enough to stop the turbine from operating. Instead, control turbine activation by room pressure and only reintroduce liquid when the chamber is hot enough.