Hydrogen Engine
| Hydrogen Engine | |
|---|---|
| |
| Fits small grid | |
| Mass: | 1005.2 kg |
| PCU: | 25 |
| Size: | 3x2x2 |
| Time to Build: | 40 sec |
| Fits large grid | |
| Mass: | 3253.8 kg |
| PCU: | 25 |
| Size: | 1x1x2 |
| Time to Build: | 60 sec |
| Data Controls: | [edit] [purge] (?) |
The Hydrogen Engine is a functional power source that uses hydrogen fuel. It is commonly employed on ships, vehicles, factories, and stations.
Usage
Use the Hydrogen Engine to power grids at the cost of consuming hydrogen gas. The Hydrogen Engine is a fast and reliable power source that is independent of sunlight or wind. It works on any spacecraft, aircraft, land vehicle, drone, or base, even underground.
What are the requirements?
You must connect the Hydrogen Engine to a powered conveyor system for it to be able to pull hydrogen fuel. It cannot be the sole source of power since it needs a tiny charge to jump start itself.
The second requirement is the presence of hydrogen. Use one of the following options:
- The grid needs conveyored
Hydrogen Tanks that you refill from the carrier or a base by docking with a 
Connector. - Or the grid needs an O2 H2 Generator and a cargo container full of ice.
- Or combine both to be prepared for anything.
Are there pros and cons?
In contrast to renewable power production, the engine is independent of sunlight or wind. Its advantage is that 
Ice (and therefor hydrogen) is readily available on many planets and asteroids. It's an affordable power source and no rare end-game materials (such as Platinum or Uranium) are needed to use hydrogen power.
A disadvantage is that hydrogen tanks and their conveyor lines increase the ship's volume and mass dramatically. The use of hydrogen also introduces many weak points: Conveyor tubes can break and damaged hydrogen tanks are explosive.
If you have already added hydrogen tanks or generators, or both, to the ship because its main means of propulsion is hydrogen thrust, then adding hydrogen engines comes natural and brings no further disadvantage.
How to troubleshoot a broken engine?
If the Hydrogen Engine does not produce any power:
- Make sure it is conveyored to filled hydrogen tanks or active O2/H2 Generators filled with ice.
- Make sure any hydrogen tanks are not set to stockpile.
- Make sure that the conveyor line between the engine and the hydrogen fuel is intact.
- Make sure that the Hydrogen Engine is not the sole source of power on the grid: Add a Small Battery (or Solar Panel, or connecte to another powered grid, etc.) to jumpstart the conveyor system to pull hydrogen into the engine.
- Lastly, try switching it off and on again.
Inventory
The large-grid Hydrogen Engine can hold 100,000 liters of fuel. The small-grid engine can hold 5,000 liters. It cannot hold any items such as ice or bottles.
Power
The Hydrogen Engine works similarly to a 
Reactor in the sense that, if the grid idles, the engine stops burning hydrogen fuel.
If built on a grid with blocks that use power constantly, however, the Hydrogen Engine burns fuel and produces power constantly.
| Grid | Power Output | Fuel Consumption |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 500 kW | 50 L/s[1] |
| Large | 5 MW | 500 L/s[1] |
The Hydrogen Engine produces 1 kWh per 360 liters of hydrogen or 1 MWh per 360,000 liters. This means it takes for example 1,350,000 liters hydrogen to charge a large grid battery (3 MWh with 20 % power loss!) or 1,080,000 liters to charge a jump drive. This is equivalent to "burning" 67,500 kg ice or 54,000 kg ice, respectively, in an O2/H2 generators at 20 liters per kg.
Trivia
The Hydrogen Engine is one of the few blocks whose recipe requires one 
Power Cell. However, unlike Batteries, grinding down Hydrogen Engines yields the power cell intact without them turning into 
Scrap Metal. This is because Hydrogen Engines don't start out with free stored energy as batteries do -- you pay the price of scrapping the cell only if the game gave you free power.
Construction
You can build this engine on small grids and large grids.
The large-grid engine has two conveyor ports, one on the bottom of the tall face and the other on the small face. It has mount points only on the two sides where the conveyor ports are, so you need to plan its placement a bit. It has three terminal ports that act as built-in 
Control Panels.
The small-grid Hydrogen Engine functions the same way, with two conveyor ports on opposite ends for inline deployment.
When building, make sure there is a second source of power on the grid. Even a 
Small Battery is enough. Despite the Hydrogen Engine being a power producing block, it depends on the conveyor system, which itself needs power to pull fuel!
A standalone ship or station requires an O2/H2 Generator as well to produce fuel for this engine, because the engine does not directly accept ice as imput. If you are building a drone, ship, or vehicle that regularly refuels hydrogen at a carrier or base, you can skip carrying the extra O2/H2 Generator.
Recipe
 Hydrogen Engine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Component | Large Ship/Station Required | Large Ship/Station Optional | Small Ship Required | Small Ship Optional |
 Steel Plate | 80 | 20 | 20 | 10 |
 Small Steel Tube | 20 | — | 6 | — |
| Power Cell | 1 | — | 1 | — |
 Motor | 12 | — | 4 | — |
 Large Steel Tube | 12 | — | 4 | — |
 Construction Comp. | 60 | 10 | 18 | 2 |
 Computer | 4 | — | 1 | — |
