Sabatier Reactor

The Sabatier reaction or Sabatier process produces methane and water from a reaction of hydrogen with carbon dioxide at elevated temperatures and pressures in the presence of a nickel catalyst. Aboard the long retired International Space Station, Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen are “waste” gasses. (CO2 from human respiration and H2 from the electrolization process to get O2 from water.). The ISS Sabatier device was integrated into the ISS water regeneration system to capture the water produced by the Sabatier process. The methane was vented outside of the space station and NASA hoped to use the methane as a rocket fuel source in future applications. Now our Martian engineers do not waste the methane and use it to power fuel cells, hoppers and rockets all over the surface of Mars. Our Martian Sabatier also uses H2 generated by splitting water along with CO2 condensed by a CAD to produce methane for the Chem Lab and plastics. The original hope of NASA to use the methane as a fuel source was achieved during the Ad Astra flights.

Further reading:

Ad Astra Development Zone uses massive sabatier devices in order to power the hoppers and rockets that are sent from the Ad Astra site back to Earth or various other martian settlements. These massive sabatier devices can be found within the industrial districts.