Fuel

Fuel can be inserted into burner devices and burned to power them. Different types of fuel provide different amounts of energy, measured in megajoules (MJ).

Types

This is a list of all items usable as fuel in burner devices, ordered by fuel value:

Item	Fuel value	Fuel value per raw total	Fuel value per stack	Vehicle acceleration	Vehicle top speed	Train max speed1
Wood	2 MJ	2 MJ per wood	200 MJ	100%	100%	259.2 km/h (72 m/s)
Carbon	2 MJ	2 MJ per carbon	300 MJ	100%	100%	259.2 km/h (72 m/s)
Coal	4 MJ	4 MJ per coal	200 MJ	100%	100%	259.2 km/h (72 m/s)
Solid fuel	12 MJ	0.96 MJ per unit of crude oil2, or 8.7 MJ per coal3	600 MJ	120%	105%	272.2 km/h (~75.6 m/s)
Rocket fuel	100 MJ	0.8 MJ per unit of crude oil2	1 GJ	180%	115%	298.1 km/h (83 m/s)
Nuclear fuel	1.21 GJ	9.68 MJ per unit of crude oil2, and 40.89 MJ per uranium ore5	1.21 GJ	250%	115%	298.1 km/h (83 m/s)
Uranium fuel cell	8 GJ4	507 MJ per uranium ore5	400 GJ	Unusable	Unusable	Unusable

⁽¹⁾ For the purposes of in-game speed display, the game assumes 1 tile = 1 meter. I.e., a train on basic fuel travels at 72 tiles per second at full speed, and so on.

⁽²⁾ This assumes all crude oil is processed completely into solid fuel using advanced oil processing and heavy oil cracking as intermediate steps, but not light oil cracking. More efficient methods are possible; in practice, the petroleum gas is more likely to be used for something other than solid fuel.

⁽³⁾ Using coal liquefaction and heavy oil cracking, converting all light oil and petroleum gas into solid fuel. Does not include energy requirements of refining/mining.

⁽⁴⁾ This fuel type can only be used in a nuclear reactor. Unlike other fuel types, it cannot be placed into standard burners.

⁽⁵⁾ Assuming that all U-238 is enriched. And in the case of the fuel cell, assuming all used up uranium fuel cells are reprocessed and there is no reactor neighbor bonus.

Consumption

The following formula can be used to find how long a fuel will last in a device: Burn time (s) = Fuel value (MJ) ÷ Energy consumption (MW)

Trivia

• Though the top speeds given by solid fuel, rocket fuel and nuclear fuel are presented as +5%, +15% and +15% respectively, this seems to only be true for trains. The top speeds for cars and tanks are instead approximately +9.5%, +34% and +58% respectively when these fuels are used.

History

• 0.15.0:
  • Fuel type affects vehicle acceleration and top speed.

See also

• Burner devices
  • 
    Burner inserter
    
    Burner mining drill
    
    Boiler
    
    Stone furnace
    
    Steel furnace
    
    Locomotive
    
    Car
    
    Tank
• Electric system
• Nuclear Ratios