Tutorial:Producing power from oil
Oil can be converted into solid fuel (and by extension rocket fuel), which when used to produce power will result in a net profit of power at the cost of oil.
Producing solid fuel
Converting oil products into solid fuel
Solid fuel can be produced from heavy oil, light oil, and petroleum. It takes either 20 heavy oil, 10 light oil, or 20 petroleum to produce 1 solid fuel. All three recipes take 10 seconds.
Cracking light oil into petroleum turns 30 light oil (3 solid fuel) into 20 petroleum (1 solid fuel), so light oil should not be cracked into petroleum when making solid fuel. Cracking heavy oil into light oil turns 40 heavy oil (2 solid fuel) into 30 light oil (3 solid fuel), so heavy oil should always be cracked into light oil.
Converting crude oil into oil products
Refineries have two options when converting crude oil into these three components (basic and advanced). Both recipes take 5 seconds, but advanced cracking requires water.
Basic processing produces 30 heavy, 30 light, and 40 petroleum:
- 30 heavy = 22.5 light = 2.25 solid fuel
- 30 light = 3 solid fuel
- 40 petroleum = 2 solid fuel
- 7.25 solid fuel total
Advanced processing produces 10 heavy, 45 light, and 55 petroleum:
- 10 heavy = 7.5 light = 0.75 solid fuel
- 45 light = 4.5 solid fuel
- 55 petroleum = 2.25 solid fuel
- 7.5 solid fuel total
Since advanced processing produces more solid fuel (and also results in less cracking), this recipe should be used when processing crude oil.
Energy costs and modules
When creating a closed power loop, 100 crude oil can be converted into 7.5 solid fuel, with each piece having a fuel value of 25MJ. This means that 100 crude oil has a fuel value of 187.5MJ, without productivity modules. However, productivity modules are effective at increasing the amount of fuel we can get, since it takes multiple steps.
Power cost and power results will be worked out in reverse, with the result that gives the most power being used for each step thereafter.
Light oil and petroleum gas into solid fuel
Petroleum and light oil will be used as-is for producing solid fuel. This table shows the results of various module combinations for a single cycle of the chemical plant for either light oil or petroleum. Since the solid fuel is being used in a closed loop, and therefore is going into boilers, the 25MJ fuel value is halved when used.
Combinations without productivity modules are omitted, since the first combination produces more net energy per cycle than a single piece of solid fuel is worth.
Combinations for each number of productivity modules show their best combination in bold, and only that combination is used to work out energy gained per cycle.
| Modules | Energy cost | Time per cycle | Energy cost per cycle | Solid fuel per cycle | Energy gained per cycle | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
168kW + 7kW = 175kW | 3s / 1.0625 = ~2.824s = 48/17s | 175kW * 48/17s = 8,400/17kJ |  |
(25MJ/2) * 1.1 - 8,400/17kJ = 225,350/17kJ | ~13,255.882kJ |
 |
420kW + 7kW = 427kW | 3s / 1.687 = 16/9s | 427kW * 16.9s = 6,832/9kJ | |||
|
672kW + 7kW = 679kW | 3s / 2.3125 = 48/37s | 672kW * 48/37s = 32,256/37kJ | |||
|
692kW + 7kW = 699kW | 3s / 1.5 = 2s | 699kW * 2s = 1,398kJ | |
(25MJ/2) * 1.2 - 1,398kJ = 12,102kJ | 12,102kJ |
|
440kW + 7kW = 447kW | 3s / 0.875 = 24/7s | 447kW * 24/7s = 10,728/7kJ | |||
|
714kW + 7kW = 721kW | 3s / 0.6875 = 48/11s | 721kW * 48/11s = 34,608/11kJ | |
(25MJ/2) * 1.3 - 34,608/11kJ = 126,267/11kJ | 11,478.8181...kJ |
As shown, it is most efficient to convert light oil and petroleum gas into solid fuel with 2 efficiency 3 modules and 1 productivity 3 module.
Heavy oil into light oil
Based on the above table, 1 light oil will be given an energy worth of 22,535/34kJ, since this is the optimal amount of power that can be made when converting into solid fuel.
Combinations without productivity modules are omitted, since the first combination produces more net energy per cycle than a single piece of light oil (~19,883.823kJ) is worth.
Since energy costs per cycle will be the same as above (same machine), only the optimal combination per number of productivity modules will be shown.
| Modules | Energy cost | Time per cycle | Energy cost per cycle | Light oil per cycle | Energy gained per cycle | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
168kW + 7kW = 175kW | 3s / 1.0625 = 48/17s | 175kW * 48/17s = 8,400/17kJ |  |
(22,535/34kJ) * 33 - 8,400/17kJ = 726,855/34kJ | ~21,378.088kJ |
|
692kW + 7kW = 699kW | 3s / 1.5 = 2s | 699kW * 2s = 1,398kJ | |
(22,535/34kJ) * 36 - 1,398kJ = 381,864/17kJ | ~22,462.588kJ |
|
714kW + 7kW = 721kW | 3s / 0.6875 = 48/11s | 721kW * 48/11s = 34,608/11kJ | |
(22,535/34kJ) * 39 - 34,608/11kJ = 8,490,843/374kJ | ~22,702.788kJ |
As shown, it is most efficient to convert heavy oil into light oil with 3 productivity 3 modules.
Crude oil into oil products
Crude oil will be processed using the advanced processing recipe, as it produces more solid fuel.
TODO: table
Pumpjacks
Pumpjacks can also benefit from modules.
TODO: table
Converting solid fuel into rocket fuel
TODO: Show that only 3x prod3 and 1x speed3 is profitable.