Oil Power Plants, reliable way of making electricity.

[dee-]

Here is one design that does not use advanced oil processing and therefore does not need water, just oil.
It's not as efficient as the advanced oil ones but can be used in locations where no water is around.

The output is mostly balanced: one side 2 fuel/light oil, the other side 1 fuel/heavy oil + 1 fuel/petroleum.
As the three liquids are however produced at different ratios (3:3:4) at the oil refinery, it's a little bit off-balance, but not much.



It looks as boring as it is but the more interesting designs had the same footprint (14 x 6) and used a little more resources.
There is a shorter solution (13 x 6) but so far I did not manage to balance the lanes.

As with the previous design it can easily be chained.

[vanatteveldt]

This is my current setup for decentralized oil power:



The refining setup is pretty standard. I decided to put a buffer chest to make sure that no oil is wasted (at the cost of an extra inserter)

Note that the 2 steam engines on the right hand side form a separate power network, only used to power the refinery itself; while the other engines supply power to the normal network. Not sure if this works better than an accumulator gap - in particular I would be worried that it can get trapped in a negative power spiral. I guess an "accumulator gap" allows power to flow either way as needed?

This is power use for the refinery:


You can neatly see how the refinery first draws power, followed by the chemical plants. As soon as I get modules going I will post back with upated results

Edit: OK, I don't get how to connect networks with accumulators. I tried this:



But now the oil power charges the accumulators and then just stops (because the main network doesn't drain the accus, I guess). Since the oil is "free", I want oil power to be used whenever possible, so this is clearly not ideal. I guess I should just connect the whole thing to my network directly?

[MeduSalem]

[...]

Note that the 2 steam engines on the right hand side form a separate power network, only used to power the refinery itself; while the other engines supply power to the normal network. Not sure if this works better than an accumulator gap - in particular I would be worried that it can get trapped in a negative power spiral. I guess an "accumulator gap" allows power to flow either way as needed?

[...]

The accumulator gap is a possible way to do it, but it usually just takes more space and is more prone to errors. I used to do it that way a long time ago to prevent death spirals in high demand cases.

But nowadays I just put as many Steam Engines as I need on a seperate network to power the powerplant itself, the way you did it, to gurantee that there is enough power for the refining process at all times.

If you are worried about the overhead in terms that you can't fully use the power of one steam engine don't worry about that... because really... it almost doesn't matter in the grand scheme.

That said I am not using decentralized oil power plants, I have one big centralized one, so the overhead of the entire power plant (including refining processes, etc) can be controlled way better and it becomes negligible. So it is a lot easier to say "forget about the overhead" for me than it is for somebody using decentralized setups.

[binbinhfr]

newbie quesion :
on this image from dee, on the chemical plant on the bottom, one petroleum input is apparently connected to water. Isn't it a problem ? The plant automatically refuses liquids that do not fit the requirement ? If it's true, that's a nice trick to know.

[starholme]

newbie quesion :
on this image from dee, on the chemical plant on the bottom, one petroleum input is apparently connected to water. Isn't it a problem ? The plant automatically refuses liquids that do not fit the requirement ? If it's true, that's a nice trick to know.

You are correct, the slots only accept the correct liquid. Just like an assembler won't let you put steel plates where it expects copper plates. But more useful with the way pipes auto-connect

[Kelidoskoped]

Mr. Fossil here. You fools are missing out on the power of DIRTY COAL!!!!
This power plant runs off of two electric drills and is more than enough to power my main base and any new outposts I decide to build.
Ignore the fuel icons, I shut those two blocks off.

coal plant

2016-03-30.png (4.14 MiB) Viewed 11584 times

Main base used to be powered by an incredibly inefficient rig that I threw up to get some power ASAP. That ran out of mining capacity (I used the coal for my base) so I built this baby. 6 boilers, 4 steam engines per block.

[Kelidoskoped]

The Coal Baron has been defeated. I have three 0.1/s oil sources at my base. Experimental power plant is in the works.

[Dissonant]

Hey, just wondering if you've experimented with the power used/oil generated by using effect beacons to speed up pump jacks or make refineries/plants more efficient.
Where I can on groups of ~4-5 oil veins grouped together, I'll place 3-4 effect beacons with full speed to get ~250% speed bonus from each jack.
The power used becomes substantial in comparison to a simpler setup, but it would result in much lower need to expand exclusively for oil.

[sckuzzle]

Along the same line of thinking, productivity modules in the refinery / cracking / solid fuel plants may also be something to look at for increased efficiency.

[XKnight]

Hey, just wondering if you've experimented with the power used/oil generated by using effect beacons to speed up pump jacks or make refineries/plants more efficient.
Where I can on groups of ~4-5 oil veins grouped together, I'll place 3-4 effect beacons with full speed to get ~250% speed bonus from each jack.
The power used becomes substantial in comparison to a simpler setup, but it would result in much lower need to expand exclusively for oil.

You can find theoretical answer in this post

Optimal build: {productivity, speed, efficiency, speed in beacons, efficiency in beacons}
petrolium - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}, here and everywhere beacon #8 decreases net profit, so only 7 beacons are used
light oil - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}
heavy oil (cracking) - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}
crude oil (advanced processing) - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}
depletted pump - {0, 2, 0, 8, 0}

[sckuzzle]

Hey, just wondering if you've experimented with the power used/oil generated by using effect beacons to speed up pump jacks or make refineries/plants more efficient.
Where I can on groups of ~4-5 oil veins grouped together, I'll place 3-4 effect beacons with full speed to get ~250% speed bonus from each jack.
The power used becomes substantial in comparison to a simpler setup, but it would result in much lower need to expand exclusively for oil.

You can find theoretical answer in this post

Optimal build: {productivity, speed, efficiency, speed in beacons, efficiency in beacons}
petrolium - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}, here and everywhere beacon #8 decreases net profit, so only 7 beacons are used
light oil - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}
heavy oil (cracking) - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}
crude oil (advanced processing) - {2, 0, 0, 1, 6}
depletted pump - {0, 2, 0, 8, 0}

This assumes an infinite line of beacons / factories and no end effects?

[XKnight]

This assumes an infinite line of beacons / factories and no end effects?

Yep. As a result, refineries and chemical plants near the end will have lower efficiency, because they have to "pay" energy for extra beacons.

[Mendel]

I find that I can reliably get all the power I need by solar + accumulators and then I would use depleted oil patches to get more oil for my plastic and battery production. I need all the oil I can get. I would use modules to keep the pumpjacks useful. Its possible to get +300% speed with beacons, its almost as if it never depleted at all. Just need a LOT of solar and accumulators but then you get the same or more electricity and end up with more oil you can use.

I suppose its just a different approach and a matter of personal preference.

[vanatteveldt]

I find that I can reliably get all the power I need by solar + accumulators and then I would use depleted oil patches to get more oil for my plastic and battery production. I need all the oil I can get. I would use modules to keep the pumpjacks useful. Its possible to get +300% speed with beacons, its almost as if it never depleted at all. Just need a LOT of solar and accumulators but then you get the same or more electricity and end up with more oil you can use.

I suppose its just a different approach and a matter of personal preference.

Yeah, I often play with no solar because I just don't like the fire and forget nature of solar. I prefer playing with a lot of oil plus the complexity of setting up a good oil plant, or (currently) the complexity and fragility of nucular power...

[Mendel]

not to mention if going for the no solar achievement then this oil to power contraption would be of course very good indeed.

[Nich]

With that much surplus energy why dont you siphone off the usable petrol? It is kind of a waste turning it into solid fuel.

[MBas]

All values are valid for 1 pumpjack on 0.1 oilpatch with 2 speed module (+100% speed)

production: 11.15 solid fuel / minute
average energy consumption: 526 kW = 31.56 MJ / minute

so if we compensate 12.5 MJ by 1 piece of solid fuel, we have

Energy production = (11.15 × 12.5 - 31.56)/60 = 1.797 MW per one 0.1 oil patch

Does anybody have better ratio with use crude oil only? (no water allowed)

Rules:

1) Each oilpatch must be exactly 0.1
2) Water is not allowed
3) Beacons nearby pumjacks are not allowed

Goal: Try to reach maximum power per one oilpatch where one piece of SF is equal to 12.5 MJ and one rocket fuel is equal to 112.5 MJ (and energy consumption of complete process must be substract including pumpjack consumption)

oil.png (1.21 MiB) Viewed 10359 times

[torne]

Two light oil to solid fuel plants isn't enough to keep up with a full speed refinery: they only consume 4.1666 light oil per second, but the refinery can produce 4.5/s (plus the additional light oil from cracking heavy). One petroleum to fuel plant also isn't enough. One heavy to light cracking per refinery is too many; it only takes one heavy cracker for every five full speed refineries. So, repeating that section isn't an ideal extensible design.

Not 100% sure I calculated this correctly but I think a block of 5 refineries with one heavy oil cracker needs 12.6 light oil to fuel plants, plus 6.6 petroleum to fuel plants. Not very round numbers unfortunately

[MBas]

Two light oil to solid fuel plants isn't enough to keep up with a full speed refinery: they only consume 4.1666 light oil per second, but the refinery can produce 4.5/s (plus the additional light oil from cracking heavy). One petroleum to fuel plant also isn't enough. One heavy to light cracking per refinery is too many; it only takes one heavy cracker for every five full speed refineries. So, repeating that section isn't an ideal extensible design.

Not 100% sure I calculated this correctly but I think a block of 5 refineries with one heavy oil cracker needs 12.6 light oil to fuel plants, plus 6.6 petroleum to fuel plants. Not very round numbers unfortunately

Yes, every single fact you wrote is true, but only if you are using a water .

[torne]

Oops, sorry; I just realised I was accidentally replying to a much earlier post in the thread Nevermind!