Fractionator: Difference between revisions

==Production Progression Chart==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; background-color:#0b161c

!Stage 2

!Stage 3

!Stage 4

!Stage 5

| {{riq|Iron Ore|24}}

| {{riq|Iron Ingot|24}}

| {{riq|Steel|8}}

| {{ppc skip}}

|rowspan=7| {{riq|Fractionator|1}}

| {{riq|Stone|4}}

| {{riq|Stone Brick|4}}

| {{ppc skip}}

| {{ppc skip}}

| {{riq|Stone|8}}

| {{riq|Glass|4}}

| {{ppc skip}}

| {{ppc skip}}

| {{riq|Silicon Ore|8}}

|rowspan=2| {{riq|Microcrystalline Component|2}}

|rowspan=4| {{riq|Processor|1}}

| {{riq|Copper Ore|2}}

| {{riq|Iron Ore|2}}

|rowspan=2| {{riq|Circuit Board|2}}

| {{riq|Copper Ore|1}}

==Player Tips & Tricks==

* The Fractionator is unique in that the amount of Deuterium produced is a ''percentage'' of the Hydrogen input. This means that the rate of Deuterium conversion is directly proportional to the conveyor belt's speed (1% of belt speed), how saturated the Hydrogen input and outputs are, and how high the Hydrogen input is stacked.  

** Production rates for a single Fractionator with fully saturated input belt:

! Conveyor Belt !! colspan="2" | Stack Size 1 !! colspan="2" | Stack Size 2 !! colspan="2" | Stack Size 3 !! colspan="2" | Stack Size 4

| {{ItemIcon|Conveyor Belt Mk.I}} || 3.6/m || 0.06/s || 7.2/m || 0.12/s || 10.8/m || 0.18/s || 14.4/m || 0.24/s

| {{ItemIcon|Conveyor Belt Mk.II}} || 7.2/m || 0.12/s || 14.4/m || 0.24/s || 21.6/m || 0.36/s || 28.8/m || 0.48/s

| {{ItemIcon|Conveyor Belt Mk.III}} || 18/m || 0.3/s || 36/m || 0.6/s || 54/m || 0.9/s || 72/m || 1.2/s

|}

* It is useful to build Fractionators in a conveyor loop, with one entry point for Hydrogen. This allows cycling of Hydrogen already on the belt for further conversion to Deuterium, requiring only the replacement of Hydrogen that was converted.

** Any conveyor loop that is fully saturated with Hydrogen, for any type of Conveyor Belt, can serve up to 100 Fractionators at a time.

** Note, however, that Fractionators necessarily desaturate the loop, albeit at a low rate, so with a single entry point of Hydrogen, there is approximately a 1% loss per fractionator, which cascades to further Fractionators along the loop.

*** This equation gives the expected total production of a 100 Fractionator setup on a Stack-1 Conveyor Belt Mk.III loop, starting at 100% saturation as <code>30 * 1 * (100% - (0.99 ^ 100) = 19.019 Deuterium/second</code>, or a system conversion rate of 63.4%

** In order to prevent product stacking, the inflowing Hydrogen conveyor must be joined to the conveyor loop in either T-shape or via [[Splitter]] with the returning Hydrogen input set as prioritized.

*** When used with [[Cargo stacking|stacked cargo]], the cargo must be de-stacked into the individual items before connecting the inflowing belts, and then assembled back, in order to provide the constant flow rate. The inflowing belts must also carry individual items.

**** Example: when passing through 4-stacks of Hydrogen, it must be de-stacked into 4 belts carrying individual items. Each of these belts should be connected with an inflowing belt also carrying individual items, and then assembled back into 4-stacks.

* Proliferating Hydrogen increases the Fractionator's conversion rate by the Proliferator's {{glow|Production Speedup}} bonus, also applying the Energy Consumption penalty. Passing through the Fractionator does '''not''' remove the Proliferator marks from the Hydrogen unless it gets converted.

* The energy consumption of a Fractionator depends on the Deuterium output (or equivalently the Hydrogen Input) for Deuterium output rates below or equal to 18/m (full Mk. III Belt with Stack Size 1) the base energy consumption of 720 kW is independent of the output rate as long as it is non-zero. For Deuterium output rates above 18/min the energy consumption is given by 0.06*([Deuterium/m]-6) MW. For example a Fractionator running on a fully stacked Mk. III Belt with 72 Deuterium/m consumes 3.96 MW. When using Proliferators for  {{glow|Production Speedup}} bonus the energy consumption rate is increased as usual (20%, 70% and 150% increase when using Mk. I, II., or III. Proliferator respectively). Thus the maximal energy consumption of a single Fractionator is 9.9 MW while producing 144 Deuterium/m on a fully stacked Mk. III belt of Mk. III proliferated Hydrogen.

* At endgame, max throughput for a line of N fractionators processing 7200 stacked, proliferated hydrogen/minute is 7200 * (1 - 0.98 ** N). 14 fractionators in a line will yield an average 1773 deuterium / minute, not quite saturating an output belt. Alternately 2 lines of 6 fractionators on either side of a single output belt will yield 1643/m.