Aluminum Gas

Aluminum Gas is a high-temperature form of aluminum shown in the game’s material gallery, where it can be enclosed inside solid aluminum. It is associated with metal volcano materials and the broader chain of cooling and solidification used to capture volcanic output.

In practice, the important interaction is not with the gas itself but with the way aluminum-bearing material changes state when heat is removed. Metal volcano handling depends on buffering heat during the eruption phase, then moving that heat away during the idle phase before the next eruption. Because molten metals exchange heat more readily while still liquid than after turning into debris, cooling control is central to any aluminum-related setup.

A few practical notes apply when dealing with aluminum volcanoes and their output:

• Small amounts of sand can be used as a simple early-game cooling medium. When the sand melts, it becomes Liquid Glass, which can later cool into Glass debris and be collected.
• If the goal is Glass rather than aluminum processing, regularly dumping small amounts of sand every few eruptions can produce Glass at a 1:1 ratio, without the power cost of a Glass Forge.
• For longer-term, low-maintenance operation, a large sand buffer can last through many eruption cycles, especially if the volcano chamber is sealed with Insulated Tile and kept under vacuum to reduce heat loss.
• Because aluminum volcano output is hot and conductive, a Steam Turbine-based buffer is the standard late-game solution. Water or Steam is the preferred heat buffer, with the turbine deleting the stored heat after each eruption.
• Aluminum volcanoes are especially demanding compared with many other metal volcanoes: one example given for a typical setup requires about 4.7 t of water buffer, and about 4 self-cooled Steam Turbines for a representative eruption pattern.

Robo-Miners can also be useful in sealed industrial chambers, since they have line of sight through diagonal openings and closed Pneumatic Doors. This makes them able to clear tiles inside a closed room without fully exposing the setup.