Thermoelectric Generator

This page needs to be reviewed/updated:
REASON: this page needs to be reviewed by someone experienced with the TEG

An example setup of a Thermoelectric Generator

Summary

The Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) is an alternative method of producing power and can ordered from Cargo for 25 points. TEG's can easily power the entire station if set up properly, as they can generate upwards of 20-30 million watts, or 20-30 Megawatts of power. Unlike the Turbine, the TEG will require a bit more setup and construction. This guide will cover a TEG setup that is made inside of atmospherics itself, however the TEG can be made anywhere that you can get plasma and oxygen to.

Keep in mind the setup shown in this guide may not be the most efficient setup. For example, you don't necessarily need to make a 3x3 burn chamber; A 1x3 or 2x2 chamber could also work. Take the information you find here and experiment on your own!

Note: You do not need to use a plasma burn chamber for the hot loop of the TEG. It can be ran simply by using heaters and the space cooling loop in atmospherics for the hot/cold loops of the generator. Using the heater method will result in less power, so if your goal is to simply see how much you can push power generation, a plasma burn chamber will yield better results.

Setup

The TEG consists of three tiles worth of parts: The Thermoelectric Generator File:TEG.png itself, and the circulator/heat exchanger File:CirculatorHeat.png parts to the left and right of the generator. The left circulator is for the cold loop, while the circulator on the right is for the hot loop, though this can be reversed by using a multitool on the middle machine. Both circulators take in gas from the south side and expel gas from the north side. To produce the maximum amount of power, you want the hot loop to be as hot as possible and the cold loop as cold as possible as well as both loops having a high amount of pressure.

Here is a more detailed over view of what's happening in the example setup picture.

The Cold Loop

The objective of the cold loop is to get the highest amount of pressure and lowest temperature as possible. There are basically three methods of getting your cold loop very cold. You can use freezers, use a space cooling loop (one is setup already if you're using the atmospherics room) or use a combination of both. In the example setup shown on this page, a combination of a space loop and freezers is used. Once you have your method set up, just run the cold gas through the bottom input of the left circulator and hook the top output back around into your freezer or space cooling portion.

The Hot Loop

The objective of the hot loop is to get the highest amount of pressure and highest temperature as possible. Now while you can use the max temperature setting of heaters to heat your hot loop, it wont be very hot. A better method would be to use a plasma/oxygen burn mix inside of a fireproof chamber. In the example setup, a small room with reinforced floors and reinforced plasma glass is used. Reinforced plasma glass is heatproof and will contain any reaction. It is also possible to use the incinerator or turbine igniter rooms for your burn mix, if you so wish.

Note: If you're not using a room that has an igniter, you will likely need either an upgraded heater or more heaters to light your burn mix, as one default heater wont quite work. Alternatively, you can throw a lit welder into the chamber just before you're about to pump the burn mix inside. Also, an air injector and computer was used to control the injection of the mix in this example. This is optional, and you can instead use a normal uvent.

In this example, the plasma/oxygen mix travels toward the burn chamber and gets heated on the way there and then enters the chamber. Plasma auto-ignites at a certain temperature, so if you're using a heater to ignite the plasma, just crank the heater up all the way and the mix will ignite at some point. The heated gas then gets siphoned out and pushed up through the bottom of the right circulator, loops around, and then re-injected into the burn chamber, heating it up again. Note: To have a vent siphon, you can use an air alarm and switch the vent from blowing to siphon.

The Plasma/Oxygen mixture

Generally, the more oxygen there is in the burn mix, the hotter it can get, use this to control the temperature and pressure you want to reach your burn chamber. In the example setup, a mix of 80% Oxygen and 20% plasma was used. You can set this ratio on the gas mixer

Creating Power

Before the TEG will function properly is needs to have a wire 'dot' directly under the middle portion of the three sections of machinery. From here, you can wire it up to a SMES as not to overload the power grid with the massive amount of power you can produce. If you hotwire a TEG that is producing 5 Megawatts of power into the grid, the station's APCs will begin to shock people and electrified doors can explode and instantly kill people.

Once you have your TEG wired up to your SMES', they can begin producing power safely. Congratulations, you've set up a Thermoelectric generator.

If you wish to see how much power you can possibly generate, simply add a few wires leading away from the TEG, but do not connect them to anything.

Additional Guides

• Guide to Gas Turbine
• Guide to Supermatter Engine
• Atmospheric Technician
• Air Alarm