Updated: 10 Ton Small craft

[DFW]

"Fuel" in Traveller has always meant liquid hydrogen, whether refined or unrefined. Fuel scoops, not fuel processors, are the basic equipment that gathers fuel - the processors are used to produce H2 of higher purity required for safe jump operations. Core pp140-1 supports this.

There is one version that specifically outlined this. GURP trav. Basically says what I have already written.

But as discussed above and in a previous thread on this topic, hauling tanks of water around to be converted into H2 later is a very valid concept, since it takes up less volume than the H2 that can be extracted from it, it's easy to store and cheap (usually free) to obtain*. Normal cargo space can be used, either by converting it or just by carrying big tanks of it as cargo. ...
* Ammonia has its points, but is more difficult to store, is much more toxic, less easy to obtain and has less use for life support purposes. Plus it smells.

It definitely takes less space and no need for cryo refrigeration. BTW, ammonia is very simple to store. Just needs leak proof containers. Also, ammonia is found at the top of GG atmospheres and when you break out the H2 you have nitrogen left which is ~70% of your ships atmosphere can be stored for later use or just vent it.

 

[rinku]

There is one version that specifically outlined this. GURP trav. Basically says what I have already written.

Fair enough. I'm not as familiar with GT. The other versions (including MGT) however have both fuels as different purities of liquid hydrogen. However, anyone who is going to use this approach will need to modify the fuel storage rules to account for different compounds being stored. At the very least, LHyd, ammonia and water storage tanks would need to be designated separately. MGT High Guard has sort of started this with metal hydride option; no reason that it can't be extended to the other compounds. Since we're talking storage rather than direct fuel usage, based on real chemistry, no reason this can't be added to any campaign.

It definitely takes less space and no need for cryo refrigeration. BTW, ammonia is very simple to store. Just needs leak proof containers. Also, ammonia is found at the top of GG atmospheres and when you break out the H2 you have nitrogen left which is ~70% of your ships atmosphere can be stored for later use or just vent it.

If you're scooping a GG, IMHO it's simpler and presumably quicker to scoop for the H2 directly, since that's more common by several orders of magnitude. But yeah - this is a good way of getting NH3 (or CH4) if you'd rather store it instead of H2O. I wasn't dismissing ammonia at all - just that water appears to me to be a touch more practical for most situations. Liquid ammonia can be stored at room temperature since it just needs a bit of pressurisation, but liquid water doesn't even need that. If there's a leak or breach, I'd rather be mopping up water than decontaminating ammonia...

(Although, to be fair, it's not a patch on the safety and storage issues with LHyd itself...)

 

[DFW]

Overall, it just gives more options. Although as noted earlier, you can't use this for J fuel as the drive uses it too fast to run 1st through a purifier.