I know there are already a few suggestion posts about natural gas and fusion power but I don’t think any have focused directly on helium being the tying point between them. Helium is a very important resource for manufacturing, research, medical, and especially for making semiconductors. which is why it should be added to the game. It should come from Natural gas wells as a byproduct of natural gas refining, along with fuel gas and nitrogen, which should be similar to oil wells currently with offshore versions when the island ones run out. The other source of helium should come from fusion reactors turning hydrogen into helium while producing steam for electricity.
I wrote a large-ish essay to pose my suggestion not realizing the limit was 1,000 characters and not words but I spent some time on it so i'm going to try and cheese the system by posting it as an image, if this is not allowed please let me know.
Thank you for reading and considering.
I think helium should be added to the game creating many new production chains and possible
new or alternate recipes for many production chains.
Helium production primarily comes from natural gas wells (though some also can come from oil
wells). So, COI should add natural gas as a resource with well sites similar to crude oil. Natural
gas then should be refined with the output being fuel gas, nitrogen, and helium. Though the best
natural gas wells have over 90% methane, most of it becoming fuel gas, for helium production,
wells with between 5 – 10% are considered commercially viable for the helium alone and so the
in-game refining could have a ratio around 80% fuel gas 10% nitrogen, and 10% helium or
something similar depending on balancing. This would not only allow for a source of helium but
add a larger production source of fuel gas. (Possibly adding an option for gas to housing for
heating….if weather becomes something more than just aesthetic. In exchange for a greater unity
production)
Helium is mostly thought of for ballons an blimps but I’m not suggesting zeppelins be added to
the game (as awesome as that would be), though if weather does become an important thing in
the future adding a weather ballon station to get a forecast could be interesting, and later weather
satellites for more accurate forecasts, anyway back to this suggestion, not starting a new one.
Helium has many manufacturing uses beyond simply ballons. As it is a noble gas it does not
react easily with the elements around it and so is used a lot in research. Because of this it could
be added as a required resource for science pack 2 or 3 especially since refining technologies are
unlocked after 1.
Another one of its interesting properties is its extremely low boiling point, -269°C and so liquid
helium is used in cooling system, though cooling hasn’t been touched on in COI if it ever is this
is another potential use for it in the future. In manufacturing though it is used in the machining
process of metals and alloys as it reduces oxidation without reacting to high temperatures, and is
also used in welding keeping the tools cooler and thus allowing for faster welding without
damaging equipment, so it could be added as a production resource for maintenance and or
construction parts along their production chain.
Helium is also used extensively in the medical industry and so could easily be added to many of
the medical production chains in the game.
The largest major use for helium though is in the manufacturing of semiconductors again as it is
an inert gas and so won’t react to any of the production processes keeping the silicon cool and
allowing for the miniaturization of the semiconductors. As much of an interesting mess as
microchip production in COI is, I think it needs to have helium as it is an essential part of the
production process of these chips. There is even a company out their making helium filled hard
drives for use in data centers so an alternate recipe could be added to use helium to build server
units.
With the release of update 3 space has become more involved in COI and helium has its uses
their as well, again many delicate pieces of equipment from satellites to space station parts use
helium in their production. Importantly many rockets use helium to fill the void of the rocket,
pushing the fuel out and keeping pressure, again as it will not react to the fuel. So adding helium
to many space recipes would also be possible such as the space probe and station parts. possibly
just the composite core for simplification.
Before I bring this to a close with fusion reactors I should bring up the elephant in the room,
which of course is getting more helium. This is actually a real world problem as helium only
comes from gas and oil wells as a byproduct. As it is less dense than air it literally “floats” away
to the outer atmosphere and is currently a non-renewable resource. Because of this there is
extensive helium recycling throughout the industry to save as much of it as possible for future
use, this is one of the areas where I see some complication to implementing helium to COI as
recycling specifically helium does not seem worth it. So, to keep production ither there would
need to be off shore gas wells to bring in natural gas for refining or contracts specifically for
helium. Another way to offset the use would be to make it minimal with only a few units per
production chain.
Finally fusion reactors. With the game going into the near future with asteroid capturing I think it
only appropriate that it should add fusion reactors to the game. I think that the most likely
candidate should be a tokamak reactor (AKA the forbidden plasma donut). Essentially for those
who don’t know, a tokamak reactor uses electro magnets to confine and compress elements into
plasma, feeding the plasma a continued fuel source, then using the heat of the plasma to, you
guessed it, boil water (electricity has just been 200 years of finding out more technical ways of
boiling water.) fusion reactors use one primary element as fuel to generate this heat, hydrogen,
fusing it under intense pressure into helium. Part of the startup process though takes a large
amount of power but will output more, the term scientific breakeven is used to describe a reactor
that produces as much energy as it makes. The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor) in France is projected to produce 112 MW for every 50 MW it consumes, though the
ITER is experimental and has no actual production capabilities. Honestly fusion reactors are so
fascinating and such a large subject they should be looked at independently from this helium
post, so to close off basically once fusion is unlocked and researched it can be used to turn
hydrogen into helium, providing a “theoretically” unlimited renewable source for our factories.
And in turn will put out high pressure steam for electricity generation. Again, though the fusion
reactor should be looked at more intensely elsewhere.
Sources in no particular order:
https://gasprosolution.com/uses-of-helium/
https://rockymountainair.com/blog/heliums-role-for-semiconductor-production-in-the-digitalage/
https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/from-medicine-to-industrial-processes-exploring-themany-uses-of-helium/38800/
https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/surprise-helium-applications-everything-you-need-toknow/32044/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_production_in_the_United_States
https://blog.westerndigital.com/helium-hard-drives-explained/
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/helium-is-instrumental-in-semiconductormanufacturing/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas
https://air-source.com/blog/helium-and-aerospace-lifting-the-future-of-space-exploration/
https://asrc.gc.cuny.edu/headlines/2023/12/no-laughing-matter-recycling-helium-amid-a-globalshortage/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor