I know it's a game, and I love it, but what is Petroleum Gas? I get that the point of this is to abstract real life ideas, but if we wanted to model this in a game, what is it?
I saw this thread and it died off with a couple of different opinions: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=80743
The current flow for acquiring is:
- 1. Pumpjack is placed on Crude Oil spot
2. Pipes connect pumpjack crude oil output to Oil Refinery Input
3. Oil Refinery processes Crude Oil and creates Petroleum Gas, Light Oil, and Heavy Oil
- 1. Butane or Propane - Petroleum Gas is actually Butane or Propane through the distillation of Crude Oil. This is the most likely scenario because the real life process aligns most accurately to the current flow we see in Factorio: Crude Oil gets refined and creates multiple byproducts, including a gas.
2. Associated Petroleum Gas or just "Associated Gas" - Petroleum Gas is Associated Gas (Methane, Butane, Propane, Ethane, etc) within an oil reservoir, and is piped through the same pipes connecting the Pumpjack to the Oil Refinery. Once processed by the Oil Refinery, the Associated Gas goes through the distillation process and its hydrocarbons are separated to form Natural Gas, Butane, Propane, etc. This is a possible scenario in Factorio and that the developers lumped all gases together and called them "Petroleum Gas" as the real-life name implies, but it then means that a single pipeline carries both oil and gas, and that an Oil Refinery also refines Natural Gas. This is not as realistic.
3. Ethylene - Petroleum Gas is Ethylene, which is the actual carbon chain image depicted in Factorio for Petroleum Gas. While this would make sense somewhat because of the image, this scenario is less likely because Ethylene requires cracking yet Petroleum Gas is a byproduct of the Oil Refinery and not the Chemical Plant.