Volatilisation Furnace Bank

Category: [TECHNOLOGY] Type: [Industrial Processing Facility, Refining Equipment]

1. Summary

A Volatilisation Furnace Bank is a large-scale, high-temperature industrial facility located at major asteroid resource refining hubs, such as [Ceres/Callisto Refinery Nodes]. These banks consist of multiple furnace “throats” that use powerful, beamed microwave energy (often from an orbital [Solar Fresnel Swarm]) to ablate and vaporize anhydrous regolith briquettes (slag) delivered from on-rock [Spin-Gravity Drum Processors]. Fractional condensation of the resulting vapor allows for the separation and collection of valuable refined materials like alumino-silicate glass precursors, metallic magnesium, and critically, boron-rich slag essential for NECL production.

2. Data Block / Key Parameters (Typical Bank Configuration)

Parameter/Symbol Meaning/Description Value / Specification
Facility Type Secondary refining unit for asteroid-derived regolith slag Operates in vacuum or controlled low-pressure
Number of Furnaces Number of individual furnace “throats” per bank $10$ (typical example)
Power Source Beamed microwave energy $5 \, \text{GW}$ total for a 10-furnace bank
Power per Furnace Microwave power directed into each furnace throat $500 \, \text{MW}$
Energy Beam Type Typically high-power CO₂ lasers (historical) or direct microwave beams (current) from [Solar Fresnel Swarm] or local fusion plants -
Feedstock Anhydrous regolith briquettes (slag from [Spin-Gravity Drum Processor]) Rich in silicates, metal oxides
Feed Rate per Furnace Material processing rate per individual furnace throat $100 \, \text{tonnes per hour}$
Total Bank Throughput Combined processing rate for a 10-furnace bank $1000 \, \text{tonnes per hour}$
Process Chamber Diameter Diameter of each furnace throat/ablation zone $\approx 20 \, \text{m}$
Key Output Products Alumino-silicate glass foam (for insulation panels like [Foundry-Foam Metallurgy Cell] products) -
  Metallic Magnesium (Mg) ingots (e.g., for sacrificial anodes, lightweight alloys) -
  Boron-rich slag concentrate (critical precursor for [NECL Dark-Shops]) -
  Other separated oxides (e.g., SiO₂, MgO) For various industrial uses
Control System Robust industrial controllers, likely with Blue-Fire/HSA oversight for energy management Adheres to [Wildcode Crisis] safety

Relevant Equations/Relationships:

3. Narrative Detail & Context

After initial on-rock processing by [Spin-Gravity Drum Processors] separates out water ice and some organics, the remaining anhydrous regolith briquettes are still a complex mix of silicates and metal oxides. The Volatilisation Furnace Bank is the next crucial step in the [Belt Mining Workflow], designed to break down this slag further into more refined and valuable industrial feedstocks. These facilities are typically located at major, energy-rich refining hubs.

Refining Process:

  1. Feedstock Input: Dried regolith briquettes, transported in [UniPod-120 Ore Containers], are fed into the top of a furnace throat.
  2. Microwave Ablation: As the briquettes descend through the $\approx 20 \, \text{meter}$ diameter vacuum chamber of a furnace throat, they are intensely irradiated by a focused $500 \, \text{MW}$ microwave beam (or historically, high-power CO₂ lasers). This extreme energy input ablates the surface of the briquettes, vaporizing the constituent minerals directly into a superheated gas.
  3. Fractional Condensation: The mixed vapor is then channeled through a series of precisely temperature-controlled condensation zones or “cold traps” within the furnace stack. Different compounds condense out of the vapor phase at different temperatures:
  4. Product Collection: The separated, condensed materials are collected as powders, ingots, or molten streams for transport to further specialized processing plants or for direct use.

A bank of ten such furnaces, sharing a $5 \, \text{GW}$ beamed power input (often from a dedicated orbital [Solar Fresnel Swarm] or a local fusion grid), can process up to $1000 \, \text{tonnes}$ of regolith slag per hour.

“Used Future” Feel & Location: Volatilisation Furnace Banks are massive, energy-hungry industrial complexes. They would dominate the skyline of a refinery node on Ceres or be a prominent, glowing feature of an orbital facility like Callisto L-1. The exterior would be a maze of large vacuum chambers, feedstock hoppers, product output conduits, and extensive cooling systems to manage waste heat from the less-than-100% efficient energy coupling. The area would hum with the immense power flowing into the microwave generators. Inside, the furnace throats themselves would be intensely hot, glowing, and largely inaccessible during operation, managed by heavily automated systems and robust remote sensors. Maintenance would involve periodic shutdowns to clean out residues and replace refractory linings or microwave emitter components.

4. Canon Hooks & Integration

Story Seeds:

  1. A Volatilisation Furnace Bank at a key refinery node suffers a critical failure in its microwave beaming receiver array, halting production of boron-slag and threatening the FTL drive manufacturing pipeline for an entire sector.
  2. Workers at a furnace bank discover that a particular batch of regolith slag, when processed, yields an unexpectedly high concentration of a previously uncatalogued rare earth element, sparking a corporate “gold rush” to trace the slag back to its asteroid of origin.
  3. A new, more energy-efficient “cold plasma” volatilization process is developed that promises to reduce the immense power demands of furnace banks, but it requires a catalyst material that is extremely rare and difficult to synthesize.
  4. Saboteurs attempt to introduce contaminants into the feedstock of a furnace bank that, when vaporized and re-condensed, will subtly weaken the metallic magnesium output, intending to cause structural failures in ships or stations built with the tainted metal.

5. Sources, Inspirations & Version History