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Oil processing

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Revision as of 03:51, 7 September 2017 by Cine (talk | contribs) (Add section about the math of calculating the ratios)
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Oil processing is a large part of Factorio. Oil processing may refer to the researched technology, the recipe used in the oil refinery, or the overall workings of oil.

Overview

In Factorio, when the player reaches the need for Science pack 3, they must set up oil processing. In order to do this, the player must research the following technologies:

Technologies

Technology Description
Oil processing Allows the player to set up a basic facility to mine, process, and use oil.
Sulfur.png
Sulfur processing
A prerequisite for the research of the Battery, which is used in a handful items later on, including the Science pack 3.
Plastics (research) The Plastic bar is an ingredient in the Advanced circuit, which is used often later on.
Fluid handling Allows better control over your liquids, with the Storage tank and Pump.
Advanced oil processing Gives you a new recipe for use in the Oil refinery, allowing you to get more useful products from your Crude oil.
Coal liquefaction (research).png
Coal liquefaction
Gives you a refinery recipe to turn excess coal into oil products.
Flammables
Flame thrower
Gives you access to the Flamethrower and Flamethrower ammo

Recipes

There are various recipes that can be done regarding Oil processing. They are listed below.

After researching Oil processing:
Process Input Machine Output
Basic oil processing
Time icon.png
5
Solid fuel
Time icon.png
3
Solid fuel
Time icon.png
3
Solid fuel
Time icon.png
3
Lubricant.png
Lubricant
Time icon.png
1
Lubricant.png
10
After researching Advanced oil processing:
Process Input Machine Output
Advanced oil processing
Water.png
50
Time icon.png
5
Heavy oil cracking
Water.png
30
Time icon.png
3
Light oil cracking
Water.png
30
Time icon.png
3
After researching Fluid handling:
Process Input Machine Output
Fill crude oil barrel
Time icon.png
1
or
Crude-oil-barrel.png
1
Empty crude oil barrel
Crude-oil-barrel.png
1
Time icon.png
1
or
After researching
Sulfur.png
Sulfur processing:
Process Input Machine Output
Sulfur.png
Sulfur
Water.png
30
Time icon.png
1
Sulfur.png
2
Sulfuric acid
Iron plate.png
1
Sulfur.png
5
Water.png
100
Time icon.png
1
After researching Advanced electronics:
Process Input Machine Output
Processing unit
Time icon.png
15
or
After researching Battery:
Process Input Machine Output
Battery.png
Battery
Iron plate.png
1
Copper plate.png
1
Time icon.png
5
Battery.png
1
After researching Plastics (research):
Process Input Machine Output
Plastics (research)
Coal.png
1
Time icon.png
1
After researching Flammables and Flame thrower:
Process Input Machine Output
Flamethrower ammo.png
Flamethrower ammo
Iron plate.png
5
Time icon.png
3
Flamethrower ammo.png
1
After researching
Coal liquefaction.png
Coal liquefaction:
Process Input Machine Output
Coal liquefaction.png
Coal liquefaction
Coal.png
10
Steam.png
50
Time icon.png
5

Setting up oil processing

Pumpjacks need to be placed on top of the middle of the oil well. Given electricity (90kW, upgradeable), Pumpjacks will produce a certain amount of Crude oil per second, shown on the right, at the bottom of the information panel. Over time this value will decrease down to a minimum of 2 oil/s, so a pumpjack will provide unlimited oil but eventually at a very low rate.

Crude Oil must be refined in an Oil refinery. The Oil refinery needs to have a recipe set (see above for available recipes). Once it is set, the inputs and outputs show what needs to be and what will be supplied. You cannot change the locations of these, only rotate the entire machine. Make sure that the products have somewhere to go (preferably Storage Tanks), as the refinery will stop production of all products if one product output is full.

Once the process finishes in the oil refinery, the player will be left with 3 products: Heavy oil, Light oil and Petroleum gas. Both Heavy oil and Light oil can be cracked to the next lower type in a Chemical plant (recipe above). This is useful if the player has lots of Light oil but is lacking in Petroleum gas (a common problem).

From here, after some research, the player can use the oil products to create various products. They are all listed above.

Tips

  • Lubricant
    • If you run your Heavy oil pipe from the refineries past a Lubricant-making Chemical plant before sending it to the cracking Chemical plants, you can be sure that the Lubricant production will have priority over cracking.
    • Most games will only ever need one lubricant-producing Chemical plant and one Storage tank for the lubricant.
    • Since Lubricant is only used for Express transport belts and Electric engines, and the only other use of Heavy oil is flamethrower ammo, and cracking into Light oil (the Heavy oil to Solid fuel production ratio is terrible compared to cracking it first), you may want to consider placing your production of robots and belt assembly near your Oil refineries, so lubricant doesn't need to be sent as far.
  • Solid fuel
    • Solid fuel is most efficient when created from Light oil. If the player has too much heavy oil, cracking it to light oil then making it into fuel is more efficient than making heavy oil into fuel directly.
    • The circuit network can be used to easily control how much fluid gets used for each recipe, to ensure that the player always has enough.


Transporting fluids

There are many ways to move fluids in Factorio, they are listed below:

Optimal Ratios

The optimal ratio is the ratio of production that ensures no waste of time or materials.

Produce Petroleum gas

For producing petroleum gas, when you apply 1 Oil Refinery to the optimal Advanced oil processing ratio 25:3:21 (advanced oil processing : heavy cracking : light cracking), you get 1:0.12:0.84. Round that up to get 1:0.2:1, which means:

  • 10 Oil Refinery on Advanced oil processing
  • 2 Chemical plant on Heavy oil cracking
  • 10 Chemical plants on Light oil cracking

Different ratios are close enough such as 8:1:7.

The setup above will not jam, but it will have temporarily inactive buildings. If you round down, it will no longer have inactive buildings, but it will jam (over time).

This can be sped up with modules, but to prevent jams or inactive buildings, however it is recommended to speed everything up evenly. When slowing down (by using Productivity modules) you are better off experimenting on altering the ratio or the speed on certain buildings, since these ratios are only mathematically correct if all the buildings have the same speed, and have 100% productivity (In other words, no bonuses).

Calculating the optimal ratios is relatively challenging, since not all of the durations of the processes are the same (the crafting speed of a chemical plant is 1.25, but the refinery's is 1.0). If this were not taken in account, it will lead to (temporarily) inactive buildings, which is not optimal.

The math for various module configurations

Oil refinery
No modules Prod 3 + 8x2 spd beacon Prod 3 + 14/12x2 spd beacon
Raw oil consumption 100 100 100
Water consumption 50 50 50
Crafting speed 5 sec/final item 5 sec/final item 5 sec/final item
Heavy output 10 10 10
Light output 45 45 45
Petro output 55 55 55
Raw machine crafting speed 1 crafts/sec 1 crafts/sec 1 crafts/sec
Craft boost 100% 505% 805%
Output bonus 100% Final items 130% Final items 130% Final items
Total Raw oil consumption 20 per sec 101 per sec 161 per sec
Total Water consumption 10 per sec 50,5 per sec 80,5 per sec
Total Heavy output 2 per sec 13,13 per sec 20,93 per sec
Total Light output 9 per sec 59,085 per sec 94,185 per sec
Total Petro output 11 per sec 72,215 per sec 115,115 per sec
Heavy to light cracking
Heavy consumption 40 40 40
Water consumption 30 30 30
Crafting speed 3 sec/final item 3 sec/final item 3 sec/final item
Light output 30 30 30
Raw machine crafting speed 1,25 crafts/sec 1,25 crafts/sec 1,25 crafts/sec
Craft boost 100% 455% 655%
Output bonus 100% Final items 130% Final items 130% Final items
Total Heavy consumption 16,66666667 per sec 75,83333333 per sec 109,1666667 per sec
Total Water consumption 12,5 per sec 56,875 per sec 81,875 per sec
Total Light output 12,5 per sec 73,9375 per sec 106,4375 per sec
Heavy to light cracking
Light consumption 30 30 30
Water consumption 30 30 30
Crafting speed 3 sec/final item 3 sec/final item 3 sec/final item
Petro output 20 20 20
Raw machine crafting speed 1,25 crafts/sec 1,25 crafts/sec 1,25 crafts/sec
Craft boost 100% 455% 655%
Output bonus 100% Final items 130% Final items 130% Final items
Total Light consumption 12,5 per sec 56,875 per sec 81,875 per sec
Total Water consumption 12,5 per sec 56,875 per sec 81,875 per sec
Total Petro output 8,333333333 per sec 49,29166667 per sec 70,95833333 per sec
Ratio
Heavy cracking 0,12 0,173142857 0,191725191
Light cracking 0,84 1,263942857 1,399593893
Output 18 per sec 134,51685 per sec 214,42785 per sec

See also