that's actually how fusion works. you need to put a lot of energy in (to create super strong magnetic fields) to start & keep the fusion going.

you can create a plant that convert coal into lube, without byproducts
you use coal liquidification

heavy oil -> lube
light oil -> solid fuel
petro -> solid fuel
solid fuel -> steam -> energy & coal liquidifaction

the solid fuel from this process burn all the petro and light oil, and the energy is ...

actually you can produce lube without deadlocks:

you use coal liquidification

heavy oil -> lube
light oil & petro -> solid fuel -> steam -> used for liquidification and to provide energy (steam engines) for the plant

you can create a plant with this that doesn't require outside energy and ...

I had the same idea, but then I realized how pointless this would be.

Imagine now you have this abstracted green chip factory, which makes like 1k green chips per minute, whatever.

Now you can place many ob these blackbox factories.

But in the end, you will be playing the same game, just that you ...