Bacterial Vat

The Bacterial Vat (BV) is an HV tier multiblock for mass fermenting fluids. Bacteria contained within the vat break down organic compounds into something new, such as Saccharomyces Escherichia turning grape juice into wine. The species of bacteria, and therefore the recipe, is determined by placing a petri dish with a culture inside the controller block of the machine. All cultures are made in the Biolab singleblock machine. Some more exotic and alien species of bacteria require radiation to survive which is supplied through a radio hatch containing radioactive materials. The fermenting process itself is closely tied to the carrying capacity of the environment, meaning the output hatch should stay as close as possible to 50% capacity for maximum growth and productivity. Although the BV is mandatory for progression in UV, the player can later craft all the necessary fluids in the Quantum Force Transformer.

The BV has one tiered component. The glass determines the maximum recipe tier, but not the maximum energy hatch tier. Multi-amp and laser energy hatches are not supported, but there can be multiple regular energy hatches for overclocking. Only one output hatch and one radio hatch is allowed. Use the Multiblock Structure Hologram Projector to visualize/build the structure with subchannel "glass" to specify the tier of the glass.

Structure

• Controller: Front bottom center
• 19-45 Stainless Steel Machine Casing
• 32 Any Tiered Glass
• 0-1 Radio Hatch: Any casing
• 1+ Energy Hatch: Any casing
• 1 Maintenance Hatch: Any casing
• 0+ Input Bus: Any casing
• 1+ Input Hatch: Any casing
• 0+ Output Bus: Any casing
• 1 Output Hatch: Any casing

Wallsharing

BVs may wallshare each of their sides to save on glass, casings, and buses/hatches. That includes both the output hatch and the radio hatch which helps simplify automation setups and save on radioactive materials. If sharing between four machines, one hatch can go on top and the other can go on bottom.

All BV recipes require a specific petri dish with a culture inside the controller block. Petri dishes are acquired from the Biolab, an HV+ singleblock machine for all biotechnology related recipes. The Biolab has five different operating modes which is determined by the module in the lower right-hand slot of its inventory. If no module is inserted, it attempts to extract bacteria from any input ingredients and place them in a sterilized petri dish as a new culture. It is highly recommended to build multiple Biolabs inside a cleanroom to avoid constantly swapping out modules all the time.

In case the player is not very familiar with modern biotechnology, this subsection walks through obtaining the Xenoxene Xenoxsis petri dish which is needed for producing xenoxene in the BV. Note that many Biolab recipes involving these modules have very low probabilities of success meaning this will take a lot of time and there will be a lot of failed attempts. Good luck.

A few exotic and alien species of bacteria require radiation to survive which is supplied through a radio hatch containing rods or long rods of radioactive materials. A radio hatch is similar to an input bus except it continuously consumes items regardless if a recipe is running or not. Fortunately, the radio hatch can be disabled at any time with a machine controller cover. Enable sound muffling by right-clicking the radio hatch with a hammer.

The radioactive material inside the radio hatch determines the strength of the radiation in sieverts (sv), but the built in radiation shutter can reduce that by a custom amount. There is no benefit to reducing the sieverts other than needing to have an exact amount for a specific recipe. Different materials also have different lifespans, but most are quite short. The following table lists a few of the many radioactive materials by their strength, lifespan, and mass.

The BV is a closed system with a limited carrying capacity (K) for bacteria to grow. All closed systems follow a sigmoidal population curve meaning the growth rate is initially slow due to a small starting population, increases in rate as the population grows, and then slows down again as the finite resources in the environment become a limiting factor. Maximum growth in a closed system occurs at K/2.

The size of the output hatch on the BV is equivalent to the carrying capacity (K) of the bacterial culture. Very little growth occurs when the output hatch is empty or when the output hatch is close to full. Ideally, the output hatch stays as close as possible to 50% capacity for maximum growth and productivity. More specifically, both the input AND output fluids are multiplied by up to x1,001 based on how close the output hatch is to K/2 or half-full. The solid ingredients and culture are not affected. The multiplier (m) is calculated with the following equation where Fill% is the current fluid level out of the maximum capacity.

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle m=\lceil -4,000\times ({\text{Fill}}\%-0.5)^{2}\rceil +1,001}}$

This equation is quadratic to reflect the derivative of the sigmoidal population curve. The ceiling operator, however, adds a small buffer around K/2 that rounds up values close to the maximum multiplier, which means the output hatch does not have to be perfectly 50% capacity to achieve the x1,001 gain. Larger output hatches have a larger buffer, but initially require more fluid to reach K/2. It is recommended to start with a very small output hatch and work up to larger sizes as more output fluid is obtained. The following table lists all the different output hatches and their thresholds for earning the maximum x1,001 multiplier (m). The graph visually depicts the general relationship based on the percentage fill level.

Note that the multiplier (m) is calculated at the very start of a recipe. This is important when the BV is running continuously because the output from the previous recipe factors into the calculation of the multiplier (m) for the next one. Ideally, the range of optimal production should be greater than the amount of output fluid to guarantee the maximum multiplier.

The challenge in using the BV effectively is keeping the output hatch around 50% capacity to maximize the multiplier (m). That involves limiting the amount of fluid extracted from the BV every cycle, or even calculating the exact precise amount. Each of the following assumes that the same output hatch and radio hatch is shared between four BV simultaneously, but the steps are exactly the same with only one or two BV.

The core mechanic behind this approach is using a GregTech fluid regulator to extract a specific amount of fluid every few seconds, which can also be disabled with a machine controller cover and fluid detector cover. This approach is simple, compact, and scales very well.

The core mechanic behind this approach is using an OpenComputers (OC) microcontroller to calculate the exact amount of fluid to extract from the output hatch and move the fluid itself--all without any power or additional cabling. The only prerequisite is a working OC computer to flash the EEPROM with the necessary code. This approach is compact and scales well, but could be difficult to implement if unfamiliar with OC.

The core mechanic behind this approach is using a Steve's Factory Manager (SFM) script to specify exactly how much fluid should be pulled from the output hatch at a time. This approach is compact, simple, and scales well. The same script can even be extended to any number of BVs but that requires some modification of the script and some basic knowledge of SFM in general. It may be easier to just build additional machine inventory managers and copy-paste the script with a manager duplicator.

Although not entirely necessary, the following steps are for automatically disabling the radio hatch to avoid excess consumption of radioactive materials while the BV is idle. The core mechanic behind this approach is using level emitters to disable the radio hatch when there are not enough inputs. For versions prior to 2.9, control the behavior with an advanced redstone receiver (internal) instead.