Acid

[Emelio Lizardo]

In the conversio of sulfer to sulfuric acid it consumes iron plates. That seems wrong. The iron should be able to be recovered from that.

[The Chaotic Coder]

I just consulted wikipedia about sulphuric acid and various methods of producing it, and I didn't see any mention of iron at all... there's one method used a century ago that involved lead, but no iron.

So, I'm not sure what reaction is going on with the sulphur and the iron, but it's probably just a gameplay balance thing and not a realism thing.

[Emelio Lizardo]

I hate non plausable things being done for 'game balace'.

[Teh Freek]

Originally posted by jchardin64:

I just consulted wikipedia about sulphuric acid and various methods of producing it, and I didn't see any mention of iron at all... there's one method used a century ago that involved lead, but no iron.

So, I'm not sure what reaction is going on with the sulphur and the iron, but it's probably just a gameplay balance thing and not a realism thing.

The "Occurrence" section[en.wikipedia.org] describes the oxidation of pyrite (an iron-sulfur compound) to produce sulfuric acid and aqueous iron (a possible pollutant), so I have no idea what article you read that didn't talk about it.

[Cryten]

Keep in mind this is a game where there is only copper and iron and oil with stone as an aside. To match the industrial realism you need far more complicated materials with a bunch of waste products. Im glad its not more complicated could you imagine a full periodic table while also having to manage the logistics and aliens?

If your gonna complain about that you may as well complain about most of the production line like belts and inserters making science.

[Emelio Lizardo]

I can see the science thing being a highly abstracted representation of the consumption of increasingly sophisticated products.

I'd see that sulfer could be extracted from iron ore (pyrite) as a byproduct, and coal too.

You could go further and have sulfer recovery on the furneses.

[Sangria Technotruck]

Originally posted by Emelio Lizardo:

I hate non plausable things being done for 'game balace'.

Sounds like "real life" is where you want to be then.


Personally, I really don't want the game design to start with "Step #1: Wait 6 weeks for your broken limbs to heal from the crash", "Step #2: 8 weeks of physio", just so you can get "Day 4: Game Over, you've died of dehydration" for the endgame.

[zytukin]

Speaking along the lines of realism,
I've always wondered why steel didn't need coal.

We have coal, it's one of the first things mined and used, then it's usage declines as we advance.
Then we start needing Steel.

In real life, steel is made from iron and carbon (amount depending on how 'soft' the steel needs to be). Coal is primarily carbon. We should need coal to make steel.

[Cyan]

Originally posted by zytukin:

Speaking along the lines of realism,
I've always wondered why steel didn't need coal.

We have coal, it's one of the first things mined and used, then it's usage declines as we advance.
Then we start needing Steel.

In real life, steel is made from iron and carbon (amount depending on how 'soft' the steel needs to be). Coal is primarily carbon. We should need coal to make steel.

+1

[The Chaotic Coder]

Originally posted by Teh Freek:

Originally posted by jchardin64:

I just consulted wikipedia about sulphuric acid and various methods of producing it, and I didn't see any mention of iron at all... there's one method used a century ago that involved lead, but no iron.

So, I'm not sure what reaction is going on with the sulphur and the iron, but it's probably just a gameplay balance thing and not a realism thing.

The "Occurrence" section[en.wikipedia.org] describes the oxidation of pyrite (an iron-sulfur compound) to produce sulfuric acid and aqueous iron (a possible pollutant), so I have no idea what article you read that didn't talk about it.

Yeah, I saw that, but see iron pyrite (also known as "fool's gold" because of its color) is not the "iron plate" we have in the game. I was specifically looking for an industrial process in which sulphur + iron + water = acid, and didn't find any.

[Teh Freek]

Originally posted by jchardin64:

Originally posted by Teh Freek:

The "Occurrence" section[en.wikipedia.org] describes the oxidation of pyrite (an iron-sulfur compound) to produce sulfuric acid and aqueous iron (a possible pollutant), so I have no idea what article you read that didn't talk about it.

Yeah, I saw that, but see iron pyrite (also known as "fool's gold" because of its color) is not the "iron plate" we have in the game. I was specifically looking for an industrial process in which sulphur + iron + water = acid, and didn't find any.

http://www.google.com/patents/US7799311

"Synthetic FeS₂ may also be produced by a milling process that comprises (i) milling iron powder and sulfur powder in the presence of a milling media and a processing agent to provide a homogenous powder mixture, and (ii) treating the powder mixture to form FeS₂."

And then the water oxidizes it.

[The Chaotic Coder]

Well, there was no mention of that on wikipedia. And that sounds like kind of going a few steps sideways when you could do it much simpler. You already have sulphur (from oil), you can just make acid by burning it and reacting with water. No need to go the extra step of making pyrite and wasting the iron.

[Daynath]

The information your looking for can be found on Wikipedia you just have to look at several diffrent pages and do a little digging and reserch however i digress.

Originally posted by Emelio Lizardo:

I hate non plausable things being done for 'game balace'.

Using iron is actualy a ligimate way to create sulfuric acid as odd as that may seem at first.

while there are of course other ways to make sulfuric acid, these methods would require that additional resorces be added to the game. Resorces that would only be used in that one process. using iron is a way to do the conversion with what is already in the game

the hard part to creating Sulfuric acid H2SO4 is to get enough oxygen into the 'mix'
pure Iron reacts with very well with oxygen binding with it to what is most often known as rust. If Iron and Sulfur are combined (under correct conditions) the mix will react also taking oxygen in the air to become Iron Sulfate Fe2(SO4)3 and if that is heated even further to it's decomposition point (sulfure boils above something like 450'C) the sulfer will take the oxygen with it becoming SO3 Sulfur Trioxide gas, Leaving Iron Oxide (rust) behind.

Sulfure Trioxide desolved into water (H2O) becomes sulfuric acid H2SO4

wich brings back to the origanal question - where does the Iron go? because the iron should be recoverable as iron oxide Wich IS Iron ore (the whole point of smelting is to remove the oxygen though heat)- so really you should loose the Smelted iron (iron plates) and gain back iron ore that could be reprosessed. perhaps the Devs could add that in a future update. :D

[UnderTow]

ye and in real life we need inserters and conveyer belts to research...

nothing in the GAME is correct to real life

[Agamemnon-Hellmapper]

If you want "realism" maybe consider playing SpaceChem instead.

[Gucky]

Also Alien Planet....the Oil and all other substances could contain other Materials then on Earth....