Logic for oil processing

[ribsngibs]

Hey, I wanted to see if there was a "standard" logic for oil processing. I'm talking about in terms of hooking chem plants or pumps to the circuit network in order to ensure that the right stuff gets prioritized in case my crude oil supply starts dwindling as pumpjacks drop to .1, and also so that nothing ever backs up.

I think right now my basic list is (in order of decreasing priority)

1. Make solid fuel from light oil for backup steam generator and trains, because I don't ever, ever want my backup steam generator to run dry, and I also don't want my trains to run out of fuel.
2. Make lubricant. Seems like this doesn't need to be such a high priority, but I don't use a ton of it, so it seems better to potentially starve (unlikely) the rest of the factory while making electric engines or blue belts for a few minutes rather than halt production of engines or blue belts indefinitely if all my oil ends up being used elsewhere forever. At the same priority, probably also flamethrower ammo as well, since it's OK if it stops my factory for a short time while refilling my flamethrower ammo supply.
3. Make petroleum gas from heavy and light oil to feed batteries and plastic
4. Make solid fuel for use in rocket fuel.

So, I think this is the logic I want on my oil processing setup:

1. Always run (no logic or pumps) "light oil->solid fuel" chemplants to feed steam and trains. Possibly also add chemplants for "petrol to solid fuel" that runs only if circuit hooked up to light oil tank says empty (in case I have a backlog of petrol gas and no more light oil to make solid fuel with).
2. Run heavy->lubricant plant if solid fuel is at capacity (which should be almost all of the time).
3. Run heavy->light plants only if lube tank is full OR if solid fuel is not at capacity
4. Run light->petrol plants only if solid fuel is at capacity
5. Run light->solid fuel for use in rocket fuel only if light oil tanks are > 10% full

Does that sound like reasonable logic? The only issue I can see that I've actually run into before is having a backlog of petrol and running out of lube, and with no path from petrol->lube there's no way to fix it (aside from burning petrol in a steam engine, building more petrol storage tanks, or just making more red circuits or batteries.).

[Deadly-Bagel]

If you have a dedicated coal mine for your backup generators you shouldn't have any problems, alternatively use logistics to deliver all your wood to it. I personally find oil more valuable than using it for fuel, which is otherwise abundant in forms that otherwise have little use.

Therefore I would create a system where fuel consumers prioritise wood (as I always have thousands of it). If that runs out, start using coal. If that runs low, THEN start making solid fuel. However I've never had a base big enough to even make it through all the wood I end up with, and that's not even including chests I leave scattered around with 4,000 in them.

Lubricant is fast production and relatively slow consumption. The fastest consumer is for belts, which I tend to have in a passive system anyway optimised for space rather than speed. Even if you have an optimised setup, once backed up it can only build them as fast as you use them. Therefore I set up lubricant production to work only when I have less than 500. Same for Sulphuric Acid, as a 5 > 2 sulphur to acid chem plant setup is extremely quick at producing it and it doesn't have a high consumption, mainly batteries and processing units which both use little and have long craft times.

I've used two setups interchangeably for cracking. Initially I just said if [Heavy Oil] > 500 on a pump to crack heavy oil, and [Light Oil > 1000 on a pump to crack light oil. Neither is nearly as useful as petroleum gas which I'm happy to fill my reserves of. Alternatively, use [Heavy Oil] > (1/2 Light Oil) and [Light Oil] > (1/2 Petroleum Gas). This is a more expandable solution and keeps petroleum flowing as long as possible.

[Hannu]

[quote="ribsngibs"]

I have about same basic priorities. I put heavy oil, light oil and gas into tanks. I pump heavy oil to cracking plants if level is over some limit (500 in small refineries and more in huge systems). I make practically the same thing with light oil. Then there is always some reserves for lubricant and flamethrower ammo. They use never so much oil that I have to think effects to other consumers.

There is no good reason to make solid fuel before rockets. You can feed your backup power from a separate coal mine. There are much more potential problems in oil production chain than in straight belt from miners to boilers. I use solid fuel in trains to imitate diesel fuel but it is just rolegaming. Consumption of trains is negligible and I have never had any issues in oil system due to trains.

When I have the rocket launching capability I increase light oil reserves and connect belt from solid fuel factory to rocket fuel factory only if the gas level is high enough. If I have problems the gas level drops first and reaction to that gives more time to keep the most important functions running. I have a red warning light which I can see when I walk past my refinery.

When I get oil at the first time I go straight to blue science and advanced oil processing. That process fills one tank of light and heavy oil to about 2k, which I can crack later. I have not to destroy oils or invent some special use for them before cracking. I have never needed more complex logic or priorities. Sometimes there is a competition with sulfur and plastic production in beginning, but I do not have large buffers for these materials and they find balance soon. And usually I make flow controllers with hysteresis just to entertain myself.

[ribsngibs]

My rationale for using solid fuel for backup steam generators is that the usage is actually zero (at least in my base) - I have never gotten to below 25% on my accumulators overnight that I've noticed, and I can see from where I've merged the solid fuel belt into the old coal belt that the steam engines have not run once since I hooked it up. So for me it makes sense to hook up to an infinite, but useful supply, since the expected loss is simply what it took to fill the (very short) belt from the chem plants to the main coal belt (which I purposely built directly next to the splitter).

I like the idea of building a system that prioritizes wood, though - I could definitely see putting a little combinator action on all my train stops which attempt to fill locomotives with wood if possible, otherwise random coal from the logistics network, otherwise solid fuel.