5 ms·

Factorio sort of does this. Aliens attack you based on pollution, and you have the choice to use coal vs green energy.

SteveNuts 6y ago
The thing with factorio is the green power generators still have pollution associated with it, so I always just elect to use the more powerful coal generators and beef up my defenses.
- sbierwagen 6y ago
  To be clear: Solar panels in Factorio produce no pollution, but metal smelting produces huge amounts of it, and you have to smelt to do basically anything in the game.
  - unixhero 6y ago
    Which is ... Accurate!
    - aurelwu 6y ago
      Direct reduction of iron ore with Hydrogen can eliminate most of the process emissions of smelting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron . Production of secondary steel (recycled steel) using electric arc furnaces also barely has process emissions.
      - gpm 6y ago
        I've never heard of this before, so correct me if I'm wrong, but that wikipedia article makes it look like 2Fe2O3 + 6H2 -> 2Fe + 6H2O. Commercially hydrogen is produced via CH4 + 2H2O -> CO2 + 4H2. Combined you're just converting methane into CO2 and H2O as if you burnt it? Is it actually the case that this ends up needing less hydrocarbons than other routes for some reason?
        sbierwagen 6y ago
        If carbon emissions were heavily taxed, it would be cheaper to generate the hydrogen from water electrolysis.
        Robotbeat 6y ago
        In the US, no new blast furnaces have been built in decades; they’re all mini mills and/or direct reduction furnaces and yeah, the latter use natural gas. But again, you could use electrolytically producers hydrogen. There’s no reason to use steam reformed hydrogen except it’s currently cheaper.
        Gibbon1 6y ago
        You might be interested in the direct reduced iron process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron I think[1] typical plants steam reform natural gas to CO and H2 and use that to reduce iron ore below the melting temperature of iron. Which makes it energy efficient. [1] I think == don't quote me

The thing with factorio is the green power generators still have pollution associated with it, so I always just elect to use the more powerful coal generators and beef up my defenses.

sbierwagen 6y ago
To be clear: Solar panels in Factorio produce no pollution, but metal smelting produces huge amounts of it, and you have to smelt to do basically anything in the game.
- unixhero 6y ago
  Which is ... Accurate!
  - aurelwu 6y ago
    Direct reduction of iron ore with Hydrogen can eliminate most of the process emissions of smelting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron . Production of secondary steel (recycled steel) using electric arc furnaces also barely has process emissions.
    - gpm 6y ago
      I've never heard of this before, so correct me if I'm wrong, but that wikipedia article makes it look like 2Fe2O3 + 6H2 -> 2Fe + 6H2O. Commercially hydrogen is produced via CH4 + 2H2O -> CO2 + 4H2. Combined you're just converting methane into CO2 and H2O as if you burnt it? Is it actually the case that this ends up needing less hydrocarbons than other routes for some reason?
      - sbierwagen 6y ago
        If carbon emissions were heavily taxed, it would be cheaper to generate the hydrogen from water electrolysis.
      - Robotbeat 6y ago
        In the US, no new blast furnaces have been built in decades; they’re all mini mills and/or direct reduction furnaces and yeah, the latter use natural gas. But again, you could use electrolytically producers hydrogen. There’s no reason to use steam reformed hydrogen except it’s currently cheaper.
      - Gibbon1 6y ago
        You might be interested in the direct reduced iron process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron I think[1] typical plants steam reform natural gas to CO and H2 and use that to reduce iron ore below the melting temperature of iron. Which makes it energy efficient. [1] I think == don't quote me