Oxygen Diffuser

The Oxygen Diffuser is a basic life-support building that converts Algae into Oxygen at a high output rate. It is mainly used to keep early colonies breathable by filling large rooms quickly, and its fast emission can also help hold unwanted gases in place or push them away by displacing them with oxygen. In practice, it is effective for the room it sits in, but it is a poor choice for supplying oxygen through narrow corridors or into multiple separate rooms.

Although it is simple to use, the Oxygen Diffuser is not efficient. It consumes 550 g/s of Algae and can store up to 330 kg internally, so it will burn through an Algae supply quickly. When its storage drops below 132 kg, it generates a supply errand for more Algae, but duplicants will not overfill it by more than 200 kg in a single delivery. Because of this, it is common to disable the building once better oxygen production is available, especially when Algae reserves are low.

The building stops operating when the tiles around it contain more than 1800 g of gas pressure. This overpressure behavior means it cannot continue pushing oxygen out if the surrounding area is already too full of another gas. For that reason, it works best in open spaces or rooms that are not already pressurized. If oxygen needs to be distributed farther away, gas permeable tiles or a ducting system are better solutions than relying on the diffuser to flood neighboring rooms.

A few practical details make the Oxygen Diffuser easier to manage:

• It is efficient enough to keep a colony breathing, but it is considered wasteful compared with later oxygen-production methods.
• It should generally be used as a local oxygen source rather than as a whole-base distribution tool.
• Germs on the input Algae are not removed by the conversion process. Algae taken from areas contaminated by Slimelung can spread germs into the produced oxygen, though those germs do not survive long in pure oxygen.
• The oxygen produced is 30 °C by default, or hotter if the input Algae is hotter than that. This means the building can also contribute heat to a colony over time.

Because the building checks the gas pressure in its surroundings, its placement matters. If it is installed in a space filled with a different gas, it may be unable to produce enough oxygen to clear the area. For best results, place it in a room that can accept the output and does not already exceed the overpressure threshold.