Naphtha

This article has not been revised for the current version (***U50-587362***). It was last updated for *LU-356355*. It may contain inaccuracies.
This article has not been revised for the current version (***U50-587362***). It was last updated for *LU-356355*. It may contain inaccuracies.

## Naphtha

Naphtha a distilled hydrocarbon mixture produced from the burning of Plastic.

### Properties

 Hydrocarbon, Liquid

**Naphtha** is a waste product resulting from melting Plastic at 162.85°C (liquefaction point + 3 °C), Isoresin at 103 °C (liquefaction point + 3 °C. 203 °C in the Spaced Out DLC), or Visco-Gel at 482.85 °C (liquefaction point + 3 °C). It has a 1:1 conversion-ratio.

## Usage

Naphtha is a quite decent liquid insulator, with Thermal Conductivity rivaled only by Ethanol, Resin and liquefied gasses, while at the same time having Heat Capacity, and temperature range slightly better than Petroleum. It can be recycled into Natural Gas via Sour Gas-boiler.

Although the thermal conductivity of this liquid is too low to be of any use in heat exchanges, it can be used as coolant for metal refining, which does not involve the thermal conductivity of the liquid that is used for absorbing the heat from refining.

When dropped on a tile, Naphtha will accumulate up to 40kg before spilling over to the next tile. This is a much higher mass (about 1000 times more than water) than other liquids and combined with its very high stable temperature range (-50C to 538C), this makes Naphtha ideal for creating a 1-tile high liquid lock of 35-38kg of Naphtha for applications like infinite freezer storage, while acting as a decent temperature barrier and still letting dupes access the food. Radbolts will go through Naphtha making it ideal for creating a liquid lock in a Research Reactor steam room.

Polymer Press fed with pre-heated Petroleum is the easiest way to obtain Naphta. If Plastic in press is overheated then Naphtha is droped instead. This solution assumes that Crude Oil is available, which is not always the case in the Spaced Out! DLC. In the Spaced Out! DLC, getting the first batch of Naphtha can be tedious. The following are ways to do so:

1. Build a Plastic Tile next to a Thermo Aquatuner made of Steel in an insulated cavity, via diagonal tile-building; have the Aquatuner soak and dump heat from liquid into the tile.
2. The exploit with pulsing the Liquid Tepidizer on and off can also work, provided that the exploit-killing scripts have not kicked in. The long length of the device can pose a problem in concentrating the heat on the tile though.
3. Build a Plastic Tile such that it is on top of a Metal Tile that has been built just above a strata near the Magma biome, preferably at the strata with rock tiles at ~200 °C. That assumes that there is a Magma biome; this is the most economical method, but *the most dangerous one for the Dupes doing the prepping*.

* + However, due to the low thermal conductivity of Plastic, it will take a long, long time for it to melt, even with the Aquatuner maintained at 300 °C; attempting to melt more amounts of Plastic takes even longer. This is mainly due to the trapped gasses sapping away a lot of the heat.
	+ Thus, there have to be a cavity with Insulated Tiles to trap the heat in.
	+ Also, there has to be a Liquid Pump - also made of Steel - in order to scoop up the stuff. This should be built after the Naphtha has been formed, in order to avoid the pump sapping heat away from the Plastic Tile. Breaking into the insulated cavity also cools the Naphtha, in order to avoid any further heating. Pity the Dupes that would have to do the work though.
* After obtaining some Naphtha - preferably enough for one run with a Metal Refinery - running one segment of Radiant Liquid Pipe through a Plastic Tile that is in an insulated cavity works well; see the screenshot for illustration. Radiant Pipes have greatly amplified Thermal Conductivity, so the Tile will melt quickly.
* In addition, cooling Naphtha with a Thermo Aquatuner does not involve its thermal conductivity either, so Naphtha can be used to dump heat into a steam-filled insulated cavity for a Steam Turbine to extract heat from.
	+ However, if *net* energy gain is the intention, then the use of a Thermo Aquatuner already makes Naphtha an unsuitable choice; Petroleum is a better choice (and may be quicker to obtain thanks to the Oil Refinery).
		- Still, due to the mechanics of Thermal Conductivity, Radiant Liquid Piping running through the cavity can compensate for the low thermal conductivity of Naphtha. Naphtha has a better heat capacity by the way; see the screenshot to the side, and notice the steam-filled cavity at the top edge of the image.
		- The Spaced Out (DLC) also happens to put Oil biomes on another asteroid, so barring risky resource-rushing strategies, it might be a while before the player gets to have Petroleum.
* Incidentally, in the case of accidents that lead to leaks of liquid or solid Naphtha, the low thermal conductivity and high viscosity makes clean-up easier than other liquids.

## Trivia

* Before the Tubular Upgrade, Naphtha, unlike other liquids, did not flow sideways, meaning it could be stacked in order to form perfect airlocks. This property was later moved to Visco-Gel.