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

We now know that 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 extremely 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.

Modules	Energy cost	Time per cycle	Energy cost per cycle	Solid fuel per cycle	Energy gained per cycle
	168kW + 7kW = 175kW	3s / 1.0625 = ~2.824s = 48/17s	175kW * 48/17s = ~494.118kJ = 8,400/17kJ	1.1	(25MJ/2) * 1.1 - 8,400/17kJ = ~13,255.882kJ = 225,350/17kJ This beats no-productivity, even if it cost no power.
	420kW + 7kW = 427kW	3s / 1.6875 = 1.777...s = 16/9s	427kW * 16.9s = 759.111...kJ = 6,832/9kJ		(25MJ/2) * 1.1 - 6,832/9kJ = 12,990.888...kJ = 116,918/9kJ
	672kW + 7kW = 679kW	3s / 2.3125 = 1.297297...s = 48/37s	672kW * 48/37s = 871.783783...kJ = 32,256/37kJ		(25MJ/2) * 1.1 - 32,256/37kJ = 11,503.216216...kJ = 425,619/37kJ
	692kW + 7kW = 699kW	3s / 1.5 = 2s	699kW * 2s = 1,398kJ	1.2	(25MJ/2) * 1.2 - 1,398kJ = 12,102kJ
	440kW + 7kW = 447kW	3s / 0.875 = ~3.428s = 24/7s	447kW * 24/7s = ~1,532.571kJ = 10,728/7kJ		(25MJ/2) * 1.2 - 10,728/7kJ = ~11,967.428kJ = 83,772/7kJ
	714kW + 7kW = 721kW	3s / 0.6875 = 4.3636...s = 48/11s	721kW * 48/11s = 3,146.1818...kJ = 34,608/11kJ	1.3	(25MJ/2) * 1.3 - 34,608/11kJ = 11,478.8181...kJ = 126,267/11kJ

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.

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.

See also

• Crude oil
• Solid fuel
• Rocket fuel
• Electric system