adding boiler fuels

[hotblack desiato]

is there a way to add fuels to a boiler? for example sodium to the liquid fuelled boiler, since the boiler is already capable of burning lithium, I'd like to add sodium aswell (both liquids are valid fuels for the semifluid generator).

I've looked around in the configs of railcraft, but I did not see a setting for that.

 

[SteveTech]

Now i'm no chemist, but I believe Lithium and Sodium react violently with water. Maybe you could get away with lithium but since sodium is a further tier down the periodic table I would postulate that putting it in a sealed container would be more akin to a bomb than a boiler.
Although according to a quick search lithium and water produces nothing more than bubbles... so maybe sodium should be a valid fuel and lithium shouldn't....


But yea, I don't know how to add fuels to the boiler.

 

[Mikey_R]

Well, if you're heating up a boiler, water should never come into contact with the heat source otherwise you have a leak. So the Na reacting with the water isn't a problem.

However, Li and Na can react with air and, although it won't be as violent as with water, it would still provide alot of heat.

 

[SteveTech]

Well, if you're heating up a boiler, water should never come into contact with the heat source otherwise you have a leak. So the Na reacting with the water isn't a problem.

However, Li and Na can react with air and, although it won't be as violent as with water, it would still provide alot of heat.

Well then that brings me to my next question. Li and Na don't react violently with air, they oxidize quickly but not nearly fast enough to heat up a boiler. So what are you reacting the Li/Na with in the boiler?

 

[Mikey_R]

They can reach quite quickly in air, even more so when there is alot of heat, so it'll just get hotter and hotter the longer the boiler stays running. Also remember how much you do put into a boiler, it isn't the small amounts you use in a science lesson, this is pumping in a ton of the stuff, there will be alot of energy produced.

As for the actual topic, in the GT config folder, go to the RecipiesAdvancedConfig and in there near the top there is a section called boilerfuels. I suspect if you add a line for Na then it would work, although I haven't tested it.

 

[hotblack desiato]

okay, I'll take a look over there.

and for the chemistry-part: lithium and every other alkali metal (aswell as alkaline earth metals like calcium) react very rapid with water. sodium for example reacts similar to an explosion in water. exposed to air, they react with oxygen from air, and some (like magnesium) are even capable of burning in CO2 or N2.

so from the minecraft-playing chemists point of view: burning lithium or sodium in a boiler is as close to reality as burning lava in a combustion engine...

EDIT: and the config file just says that:

boilerfuels {
B:item.GT_Gasses.0=true
B:item.GT_Gasses.9=true
B:item.GT_Liquids.35=true
B:item.GT_Liquids.5=true
}
I guess, there is a liquid-number that corresponds with sodium (that I don't know), but where do I add the value of sodium...

 

[Mikey_R]

I suspect you just add another line, following the same basic layout, so,

B:item.GT_Liquids.XX=true , where XX is the number for Na.

 

[hotblack desiato]

I guess, this would require that I know, where I can add a heat-value to Na. else the boiler doesn't know the burning speed...

and of course I don't know it's liquid-id...