Electrolyzer

The Electrolyzer is a late-early to midgame building that converts Water into Oxygen and Hydrogen Gas. Water goes in one end, life-sustaining Oxygen comes out the other, and the Hydrogen byproduct must be managed carefully if the machine is running inside the colony. It is an Algae-free oxygen source, making it especially valuable once Algae becomes scarce or when a colony is built around a renewable water supply.

An Electrolyzer consumes 1000 g/s of Water and produces 888 g/s of Oxygen and 112 g/s of Hydrogen. It overpressures at 2000 g, so the output area needs enough free space or active gas removal to keep it operating. The building has a 10 kg internal reserve, which gives it about 10 seconds of operation under ideal conditions, but it only works while liquid is present at its input. It accepts only Water; other liquids, including Polluted Water, damage it. If the input temperature is too high, it will not process the liquid and will instead release Steam into the environment.

Temperature management is a major part of using Electrolyzers well. The output is at least 70 °C, and if the input Water is cooler than about 19.8 °C the process creates heat overall. Above that point, the building becomes net heat negative, effectively destroying heat in proportion to how warm the input Water is, up to the 70 °C output baseline. Because of this, it is often efficient to feed it water that has already absorbed heat elsewhere, then cool the gases afterward. The hot Oxygen can easily overheat farms or living areas, so colonies usually either cool the output before distribution or place the Electrolyzer in a temperature-tolerant area and cool the base around it.

The Hydrogen output can be handled in several ways. The simplest approach is to enclose the Electrolyzer and use Gas Pumps with a Gas Filter, but that costs a lot of power and the mixed gases can reduce pump efficiency. A more efficient setup places pumps above and below the Electrolyzer, relying on the fact that Hydrogen rises above Oxygen to separate the outputs without filtering. Atmo Sensors help keep pressure from dropping too low, since low pressure can cause the gases to mix. The Hydrogen can then be fed into Hydrogen Generators, which can power the whole system and create a self-powered oxygen machine, often called a SPOM.

A few practical points are worth keeping in mind:

• The Electrolyzer is best researched before Algae runs out.
• Multiple Gas Vents or High Pressure Gas Vents help spread Oxygen evenly through the base.
• High pressure vents can cause popped eardrums and stress if the pressure is allowed to get too high.
• Germs in the input Water are not removed; Food Poisoning and Slimelung are passed into the output gases, though they eventually die off in Oxygen.
• An Anti Entropy Thermo-Nullifier pairs well with an Electrolyzer, since it can cool the output at very low Hydrogen cost and help offset the building’s heat.
• A sealed 6x2 room with pumps on both sides can cause significant Hydrogen loss, producing less than expected; making the room 3 tiles high avoids this issue.

In addition to its normal behavior, the Electrolyzer has a practical interaction with map water sources: geysers provide a sustainable Water supply, and Cool Steam Vents can be used if the Steam is condensed first. In this way, the building often becomes the center of a colony’s long-term oxygen economy.