Waste gas and exhaust

On Vulcan the outside air is almost half methane, plus hydrogen – but no oxygen. So nothing burns outside. Inside it is the other way round. As soon as both meet in one pipe, a spark is enough.

Routing waste gases separately#

Whatever comes out of filtration, furnace or generator belongs in a separate exhaust line, never back into the breathing air and never into a line with oxygen. The filtration's waste outlet, the furnace's outlet, the gas generator's exhaust: all into one network that ends at a tank or the way outside.

Exhaust outside#

An active vent outside at the end of the line blows the gas from the pipe into the surroundings with Mode = Vent.Outward (0). So it does not keep switching on and off, it gets a hysteresis: vent from 500 kPa, down to 200 kPa.

define OUTWARD Vent.Outward   # vent blows out of the pipe
sbn VENT HASH("Abluft") Mode OUTWARD   # once before the loop
sbn VENT HASH("Abluft") On out

Vent.Outward may go straight into the define – namespaces are valid at every number position.

Never mix with oxygen#

It can only burn when ignition, fuel (methane, hydrogen, alcohol) and an oxidiser (oxygen, nitrous oxide, ozone) come together. The analyzer reports the shares:

sgt danger o2 TRACE
sgt tmp fuel TRACE
and danger danger tmp   # both present = ignition risk

In danger the chip closes the inlet valve and vents nothing – not even outside, where on Vulcan fuel is already waiting. Then someone has to take a look.