User:EvilJackCarver/research notes/C-TEG
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It's possible to use heater-freezers to power the thermo-electric generator. Because it defies known physics - specifically, the law of conservation of energy - I've dubbed it the Cheater's TEG (C-TEG). The setup is simple: The loops are as small as possible, with a volume pump between the outlet and inlet facing the inlet. There is a heater-freezer as close as possible to the inlet on both the cold and hot loop. This setup, done properly with stock components and a canister of LN₂ each, can yield an output of 450 kilowatts with a mere input of sixteen kilowatts required to run the pumps and heater-freezers.
However, if R&D has upgrades, they should only upgrade the hot loop heater-freezer - if the cold loop is upgraded, you really have to account for Charles' Law of Thermal Expansion, lest the cold loop sieze up from lack of pressure. The hot loop doesn't seem to suffer from this. If the cold loop IS upgraded, the heater-freezer should be set no lower than 58 Kelvin.
It's important to note that the Supermatter Shard still has a place in this setup - it is required to produce the fuel for the FTL drives and oxygen for breathing. I ran a pipe down from the SM outlet under the engine with two filters - one for O₂ and one for plasma - and up to the heat exchanger via what's usually the cold loop outlet back to the engine. The pressure is lowered here to 400~450 kilopascals to allow the gas to cool, and from there re-enters the SM chamber. The result is a nice, cool -120 Celsius or so, give or take memory error. We can theoretically run the SM nonstop with that kind of cooling, but it would be inadvisable to let it run unattended. The O₂ and plasma waste from the SM core can be pumped straight into Atmos' waste loops, or dragged into Atmos by canisters. The latter is the preferred method for the waste plasma, the former for the waste O₂. They should not both be pumped into the waste pipes at the same time, lest the waste plasma autoignite.
The C-TEG setup has a few advantages:
- It produces stable energy with little need for babysitting.
- It is much more idiot resistant than the SM shard.
- There is a much lower risk of the SM shard delaminating, as the air coming out of the heat exchanger and into the SM chamber is around -210 Celsius when in space.
- Being planetside has less of an effect on the engine's ability to produce power.
However, it also comes with its own drawbacks:
- It can take upwards of ten minutes to set up properly.
- The oxygen produced by the SM is not breathable due to its low temperature, and must be filtered into Atmos first.
- The viability severely depends on the wiring of the ship - it may not be viable on newer models.
- The cold loop can get too cold, and Charles' Law of Thermal Expansion comes into play and can sieze the cold loop.
- It takes up a lot more space in the already-cramped engine bay.
- The SM can still easily delaminate if left unattended planetside.
Given its idiot-resistance, I prefer it more than the SM. Other captains might not. And I know CentComm certainly doesn't approve of it. ^RSpitz