Hydrogen

Material, Fuel

The most abundant element in the universe is the lightest gas.

Fuel Type		Chemical
Energy		9.00 MJ
Fuel Chamber Gen.		+100%
Made In		Refining Facility Cannot make in replicator
Gathered From		Gas Giant Orbit, Ice Giant Orbit
Stack Size		20

Summary

Hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant element in the universe. It is used in the creation of multiple products or can be used directly as a fuel.

It can be harvested directly from Gas Giants and Ice Giants using Orbital Collectors, and produced as a byproduct of many different recipes.

It can be stored in Storage Tanks as it is considered a fluid.

Production Chain

Recipe	Building	Replicator?	Technology
1 2 4 s 2		✖
2 1 2 s 2		✖
1 3 4 s 1 2		✖
2 2 2 s 2		✖
1 ?		⛏️
1 ?		⛏️

Production Upgrades

Hydrogen production from Orbital Collectors is affected by the Veins Utilization chain of upgrades, with each level giving a flat +10% to production.

Production Progression Chart

For more information on reading and using these charts, see Production Progression Chart.

Click here to show or hide the Production Progression Charts.

Critical Photon-based production
Stage 1	Stage 2
60	1 60 60
Buildings Required	1
Raw Materials Required (per minute)	60
Raw Materials Required (per unit)	1

Fire Ice-based production
Stage 1	Stage 2
60	1 30 60
Buildings Required	1
Raw Materials Required (per minute)	60
Raw Materials Required (per unit)	2

Crude Oil-based production
Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3
30	1 30 15	2 45 30
30	1 30 15	45
Buildings Required		3
Raw Materials Required (per minute)		30
Raw Materials Required (per unit)		0.67

Note: Hydrogen created during the refining process during Crude Oil-based production must be recycled through the system to ensure full efficiency. Hydrogen quantity shown in final Stage is remaining surplus Hydrogen which can be diverted elsewhere.

Used In

Recipe	Building	Replicator?	Technology
1 6 s 2 2		✔
2 6 s 1 10		✔
1 4 s 1 2 12		✔
1 4 s 8 2 12		✖
5 2.5 s 10		✖
2 24 s 12 12 1 1		✖
3 1 4 s 1 2		✖
1 1% 1		✖
3 4 s 2 1 1		✖
1 2 s 1 1 10 10		✖
1 2 s 1 1 3		✔

Trivia

A single unit of Hydrogen burns for 3.33 seconds in the Thermal Power Station when at full load. A full Conveyor Belt Mk.III of Hydrogen will be consumed by 100 Thermal Power Stations.
Hydrogen can be processed into Deuterium (1:1 ratio) via Fractionators or Miniature particle Colliders (2:1 ratio)
Hydrogen scarcity can be a roadblock in later game stages, scaling Vein Utilization and placing enough Orbital Collectors counteracts that.

Player Tips & Tricks

One very common issue is superfluous Hydrogen which can clog the production of Refined Oil, Graphene or even Antimatter, which can diminish or even completely stop production, or even worse- bring Antimatter Fuel Rod production to a halt**. To circumvent this, the player has several options, some being preventive, some being a temporary, or depending on the circumstances, even permanent fixes*.
- Prevention: Derive your Hydrogen for early Energy Matrix production from Plasma Refining alone. This will not only result in a healthy amount of refined Oil being stored for later use, it also completely eliminates the potential surplus Hydrogen that X-Ray Cracking causes.
- Prevention: When you use Orbital Collectors for Hydrogen supply, a priority system has to be installed. Most easily done via T-Junction or a Splitter, which allows locally produced Hydrogen to be consumed first, blocking all imports out until needed. If you try to explicitly import byproduct Hydrogen instead, you need to make sure that the checkbox for import from Orbital Collectors is ticked off, this way only Hydrogen stored in ILS can be drawn. This only works as long as you don't store Hydrogen from Orbital collectors in exporting ILS.
- Temporary Fix: Build a large amount of Storage Tanks if the surplus is temporary. You will use the Hydrogen up once your Gravity Matrix production comes online, since it requires Casimir Crystals which consume a lot of Hydrogen.
- Temporary Fix: Converting the Hydrogen into Deuterium and storing it in Storage Tanks. Conversion via Miniature Particle Collider also cuts the volume in half in this process, making it easier to burn off, also referred to as Hydrogen destruction setup.
- Fix: Burn the Hydrogen in Thermal Power Plants. Note that the consumption rate of Thermal Plants is reduced when your energy grid has surplus capacities for energy production, so you need to overbuild them significantly. This fix also comes with dangers for your energy grid stability since you can't rely on it once the surplus Hydrogen runs out. So prepare for that eventuality.
- Fix: Match your Hydrogen surplus with Reforming Refine Setups, and give its refined Oil output priority over the Plasma Refining production.
- *Note that all these "Fixes" are unable to truly outweigh the production of large Hydrogen Imports from Orbital collectors. The only way to really get control over the Hydrogen flow is to either consume it faster than it is made, or to enforce proper priority.
- **Since Antimatter production already results in perfect ratios of Antimatter and Hydrogen for Antimatter Fuel Rod production, there is no good reason to mix their Hydrogen supply with any external source, preventing issues like that on a fundamental level.