Hydrogen recipe

[Alasnuyo]

Creating hydrogen through electrolysis of water.

[DavidKeaton]

I'm sure a recipe involving the chem set would do this justice.

[NaturesWitness]

Shouldn't you be able to use plain water as well?

[Alasnuyo]

Plain water has limited self-ionisation. It wouldn't be efficient to use them for electrolytic cracking.

[KA101]

Careful with that PRing from master.

[KA101]

Safely producing and containing hydrogen (not noted for its spark resistance) seems like it might be fab 5-6. Apart from that, sure. If I don't hear back in an hour, I'll make that change and merge this.

[Alasnuyo]

Sure. I've got no problem with that.

And uhh.. what do you mean being careful with PRing from the master? I'm kinda new to github. Is there something I've missed?

[DavidKeaton]

So to do a PR it's best to create a branch and select that, so your master branch is always free to branch from. Don't mess with your master branch or it borks later branches based on it

[Alasnuyo]

Okay. Got it.

[KA101]

Yeah. Similar issue and a mistake I've made a few times: always switch back to master before branching. If I'm in PR1 and create a new branch PR2, that branch comes from PR1, and incorporates all of PR1. If I then file PR2, it would come with all of PR1.

Which can be an issue if PR1 and PR2 are on different topics or otherwise shouldn't be combined, and since we like to keep PRs focused, "shouldn't be combined" is the case more often than not.

[Rail-Runner]

Huh, when I attempted to add water electrolysis recipe I was told that hydrogen containers contain hydrogen compressed into solid form and therefore can't be crafted. Does this still apply?

[kevingranade]

Yes it still applies and this needs to be reverted. It's not just a matter
of generating hydrogen and sticking it in a bottle, it's a heavy-duty
industrial process involving massive amounts of equipment, and isn't
something that can be done in a worthwhile way with modern tech.
In other words the hydrogen cells in game are super-science and off-limits
for crafting.

[Rail-Runner]

What about changing the recipe to create non-compressed hydrogen then? However, I'm not exactly sure what equipment would you need to compress it for it to be useful, if that equipment is even possible for a single survivor to operate. If not, it could be possible for factions in future.

After all, we do have engines that use hydrogen as fuel IRL, yet they don't require super-compressed hydrogen, as far as I know.

[NaturesWitness]

While I can see crafting solid hydrogen cells not being feasible, I'd think compressed hydrogen canisters would be doable. My suggestion would be;
1 - Survivors can craft hydrogen canisters, a separate item from the cells.
2 - Canisters are a lot heavier, bulkier, and store less than cells.
3 - In addition to the tools already in the recipe, you need a science-grade air compressor. These could be found in labs, but the more common way to get one would be to take a construction-grade compressor (findable in hardware stores or crafted from parts) and have a crafting recipe that "upgrades" it to a science-level model (more precise controls, dedicated air intakes that can be connected to chemistry equipment, etc.)

The end result is you can make hydrogen to fuel vehicles or plasma rifles, but it takes effort and isn't as portable as pre Cata stuff. For vehicles it's not too much of a problem (with solar panels for power to crack water and on board tanks to store the gas, basically you're building a hybrid-vehicle) but using plasma weapons on foot effectively will probably require a backpack-tank setup similar to a WW1 flamethrower; with the bulk (and risk) that entails.

On a related note, the compressors (both types) could be used to also generate compressed air. This could be used for all sorts of things, from SCUBA gear, to tools, or even to supercharge RivTech pneumatic guns (they can be set to use a field tank instead of their hand pumps, meaning they can be fired much more easily, and reloaded quicker).

[KA101]

OK, I'd either missed or forgotten that restriction. Will revert in the merge.

[kevingranade]

@NaturesWitness hydrogen in the quantities and purity needed by fusion tech
is simply going to be unobtainable.